


Reach For Something Better

by ReforgedMind (Churbooseanon)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Background War, Background slavery, Blades of Marmora, Captive Royalty, Family, Intrigue, M/M, Magic-Users, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Racism, Strangers to Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-10-03 12:30:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10245710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Churbooseanon/pseuds/ReforgedMind
Summary: Crown Prince Thace of Gal, younger half-brother to the self-styled Emperor Zarkon, isn't exactly a captive in his own home. He just hasn't stepped from the castle since his brother's ascension. What choice did he have but to stay behind when survival only came with obedience? Things start to change when a friend from his past enters his life as his new druid bodyguard, and no one could have foreseen that the combination of an old friend and new possible threats to Thace and his innocent nephew could change the very face of the world for the Galra.Everything that rises must fall, but someone must first reach out to set the process in motion.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't mind me. I'm just going to sit here and bang my head into a desk a few hundred times for accidentally getting involved in a longfic in my favorite sort of genre with my newest fandom toy, and the planning is already threatening me with a sequel. Updates will happen when I can get them done in the long run, but for now the first four chapters at the very least should be a weekly thing on Sundays. See you next week.

They say there are more stars in the sky invisible to the unaided eye than there were Galra living here in the capital city. The pale violet lights of the city itself, keeping the streets moonlight dim, still managed to drown out entire classes of faint or distant stars. Thace knew he would never have the chance to see them better than this, never get somewhere further from the city to see them better. Just like he wasn't likely to run into many of the residents of the city below. Instead his view of the people had to be from the same high balcony he saw the stars from. It was, as his older brother insisted, unbecoming of a Prince of Gal to be among the normal people. Of course Thace could hardly argue. As the surviving younger brother of the Emperor Zarkon, Thace did not dare to argue. 

Not because it was inappropriate or that he was worried about the people hurting him as they had supposedly done to their late sister. No, Thace understood what had happened to her. Disobedience to their ambitious half-brother was a fatal illness, one Thace had no intention of catching. It was even more than pure survival that kept him going, but the fact that he hoped that his mostly ceremonial role as his brother's heir would one day allow him to right the changes of the last decades. 

For now all he could do was look from his balcony and wonder what the citizens below would think of him compared to his brother. 

“My lord, your meal has arrived. I would ask you come away and eat.”

The voice of reason in his life, ever patient and calm, came from just inside the door to his suite. As ever Thace turned to face the voice, resisting his smile at the sight of his childhood friend. 

Or perhaps it was unreasonable to call him such at this point. Once Ulaz was the friend with him through thick and thin, a fourth son of a lesser noble with no options in his youth but to be at the castle. They had been fast friends, exploring all the corners of the castle, even riding out of the city to explore the limits of farms and forests and the edge of the wilder desert beyond. As a fourth son, though, the fourth son of a noble man at that, there were expectations on him. 

A first son was an heir. The second was a spare and given over to the same training, ultimately to be married for political and business advantage if they weren't needed. A third son was meant for the military, to serve and lead and fulfill the will of their Emperor. And a fourth son, they were given to the druids to serve as religious advisers and masters of quintessence. Thace had lost his friend at the age of fifteen, a standard age for dedication to the religious orders, and Thace had not seen Ulaz again until three months past. 

A gift, Zarkon had nearly teased with his own druid, the Mother of Constellations herself, at his side. A guardian and a friend as a present for reaching his half-century mark. As if a man he hadn't seen for more than three-quarters of his life and who looked on him in silence in his deep purple robes shot through with silver was something he wanted as a gift. 

How right he had been. Thace was desperate for something more than his chambers and limited duties in the walls of the palace. Ulaz, unlike the guards outside of his door, was his and his alone. The druid adviser and guardian was so publicly given that Ulaz would likely not be called away from him, unlike the guards who were cycled to prevent them from growing fond or attached. 

Perhaps his brother feared a coup. He need not be so worried. Thace was too afraid of Haggar, and his brother for that matter ,to try, too aware of his lack of allies, and too cautious to trust any planning when Ulaz could easily be a loyal spy for Haggar. 

“You hesitate, lord? I seem to remember you enjoyed the spiced siltok meat. As his Imperial Grace prepared some for his meal I saw a portion would be set aside for your enjoyment,” Ulaz spoke into the silence between them. “There is fresh bread as well.”

Now there was a true temptation. All he needed was a light fruit wine and steamed leafy vegetables and he would be pleased even without a dessert. At last Thace moved forward, and as he reached Ulaz's side the druid reached out with light fingers for the warm black cloak over Thace's shoulders. 

“There is no need,” Thace quickly reminded his friend. Three months and still Ulaz tried to act as a full servant. Was that something expected of druids now, or was Ulaz just kind? Thace glanced at his pale face, not hidden by a cowl due to Thace's oft repeated and express orders to not use one, and he found it as impassive as ever. 

“Join me,” Thace requested, though he knew Ulaz would treat it as an order. He padded to the low table by the fire on bare feet, gazing at the gleam of the silver covered tray in the twin lights of the room. Some angles shone violet with quintessence based lights, others orange and gold with the firelight. It looked like a festival night seen from above, from his balcony. Only ever from his balcony. 

Carefully Thace lowered himself on to a burgundy cushion and moved to sweep the lid from the tray, not wanting to be served. After a moment Ulaz joined him, kneeling on his own cushion and still not smiling. 

“I must again note that it is not appropriate to...”

“Please don't lecture me, Ul,” Thace sighed as he reached for the cup before himself to pour some wine. He doesn't reach for Ulaz; druids, he had been told, were not allowed alcohol. 

Yet there Ulaz was, much to Thace's surprise, a pale arm holding out a carefully grasped cup. 

“You aren't supposed to...”

“You often seem sad that I do not drink with you, my prince. As such I brought leburberry and persim juice tonight,” Ulaz explained and it made Thace beam. Often they had stolen large containers of it from the fridges in the kitchens, not for Thace but due to Ulaz's love of it. That he had made the effort gave Thace hope. 

“I thank you for the consideration,” Thace smiled before reaching out to pour for Ulaz. He watched the druid as he set aside the pitcher. Ulaz was slow to sip and when he did... why didn't he seem as happy to be drinking? 

“Have I done something wrong?” Ulaz asked when he looked up again, a faint confusion on his face. It was a good look on him, but as Thace had noted a lot recently, very little didn't look good on those high cheekbones, with that angular jaw, his short fur and those lovely, prominent ears. Which was all beside the point at this moment. 

“I just... Is the juice overly sweetened to your taste today?” Thace asked, careful to keep the question light. Asking of Ulaz had gotten him little in the past. Perhaps tonight would be different. 

“I taste little, my lord. Druids are not affected by the considerations of the flesh,” Ulaz shrugged before reaching to serve himself as he did for many of their meals together. “Bread and water would taste the same to me as this meal before us, and serve the same end.”

The statement made little sense to Thace. Had he not seen Haggar during private meetings with his brother enjoying things? While Zarkon had spoken just last week on the importance of a good marriage for Thace, he had been unable to watch his brother. Instead he had glanced at the leader of the druids as she had subtly snuck spice tarts from the tray at Zarkon's right hand. The druid even licked every finger between bites. Then there was former Mother of Constellations Atarianna who served their father. She had been a woman who delighted in a well seasoned side of siltok steak. 

“I am sorry to hear this,” Thace answered, cautious to keep his tone sympathetic. It made no sense. 

“I see no reason to lament it. They are distractions,” Ulaz shrugged a fluid sort of motion that made Thace envious. He was hardly that graceful. 

“They are the little joys of life,” Thace countered. “Taste makes the act of survival through consumption more than just a chore.”

Again Ulaz shrugged. “A druid needs to be beyond the distractions of the body to best serve, and to be above any attempt to undermine our office.”

“How could the taste of juice harm a druid?”

The look Thace was given in response was that of a patient instructor teaching a quarrelsome kit. “It is more than taste, my prince. The body has other base desires.”

It took Thace a moment to process the implication. He knew other temptations of course, but they were mostly mental or emotional. He wanted responsibilities and experiences. He wanted friends and relationships. What Ulaz was implying was more, and Thace could feel his skin heating under his fur at what he hinted at. 

“So you are not capable of...”

That made Ulaz tilt his head curiously as if he was finally invested in the conversation. “If you are interested, my prince, I am still capable. Druids just do not take pleasure in the same manner. It is in my responsibilities to service you if you desire and will do so if you wish it of me at any time.”

The offer left Thace recoiling. “I...”

“The Emperor chose a male druid in part so you might seek pleasure without risking offspring,” Ulaz continued easily. 

“No,” Thace shook his head, staring darkly at his meal. “I do not desire.”

What would be the point if he would not be in the position to give pleasure as well as receive it? 

For the life of him, Thace could not force conversation now. There was too much to think of, too much he could not say. Was this way Zarkon 'gave' him his old friend, to taunt him? It would be like his half-brother to do such a thing. 

Ulaz, for what it was worth, was clearly okay with the silence, letting it settle between them easily. Normally any noise Thace wanted was supplied by his own voice, perhaps aided by pulling Ulaz into a discussion for now he regretted it. 

Perhaps he had learned too much. 

“Please leave me,” Thace asked with a sigh as he rose from his meal. 

“Of course,” Ulaz answered as he stood as well. A servant could be summoned to clear the food away. Sadly they could not take the shadow of his childhood friend away as well. The druid was housed in Thace's own suite, so he could never truly find space away from the man. How was he supposed to deal with that? 

The druid paused in the door to his room, his gaze given to Thace over his shoulder. “Have I offended you, my prince? For you are far more quiet this evening than you normally are. If you are feeling sick I could look over you. It is a simple spell.” 

“So you can bring yourself to feel concern? Surprising,” Thace grumbled to himself. “No, Ulaz, I do not care to be looked over at this time. You can report that to my brother if you want. He might find better use of you than watching over his subservient brother.”

“Why would I speak to him regarding your health unless it was an emergency?” Ulaz asked, turning back to look upon Thace. 

“You are his little watcher in the previous relative safety of my household,” Thace reminded the druid as he stalked angrily toward another room. Any place he didn't have to see the druid would be worth me. Perhaps he could bathe to avoid the druid for a while, soak away his fury in the heat if he could keep his servant away form him. Better than being actively reminded of his cage by seeing his keepers. 

“I asked for this position, Thace.”

Never before had Thace come to such an abrupt stop at the use of his name. Even when his brother shouted it Thace made sure to take another step or two before turning. Just because he needed some rebellion. But to hear his name spoken at last by the druid? 

“What?” Thace asks as he turns slowly, precisely, to face the druid. 

There was the faintest trace of embarrassment in the flattening of Ulaz's under expressive ears. 

“Forgive me, I should not have been so forward with the information. I meant to say that I asked for this posting, my lord. I was offered to be placed in my family's land before this. I knew that you lacked a personal protector, Prince Thace, and asked for the assignment. Many of my brothers and sisters among the druids considered it a poor posting. You are not open with religious honors, so the role of adviser was expected to be little used by those who joined for the religion. Most of those that you make use of are covered by Mistress Haggar herself. Given you do not leave the palace there is little call for those powers we possess and those who want to flaunt their skill were not interested either. This is a cushy posting with minimal prestige and surprisingly others were not interested. I was,” Ulaz explained, his voice a touch halting. 

“You're telling me that I am hardly a catch?” Thace laughed, shaking his head. “You did not need to tell me that, druid, I know it well. The only win here is if you seek ease with minimal power, or if you want favor with my brother by spying on me. I know you will find nothing to tell him, though. I am a bored man with no friends or allies to speak of.”

“You have me,” Ulaz countered, actual heat coming into his voice as he said it. “We were friends once my lord. Fast friends. I would rather serve you, the heir and my friend, than leave you stranded with no one. I hopes you would welcome that. But tonight I see that my old friend is gone, and I shall instead be a servant to a frankly lesser man than the boy ever was.”

With that said the druid turned and exited to his room, leaving Thace with the returned silence. Silence and a certainty that Thace had made a serious mistake.


	2. Chapter 2

Mornings were the worst part of life in the castle in Thace's opinion. Once he had been eager to rise and rush from his room, happy to fulfill his duties, all of which started with a light breakfast with his king and father. Kreyath had been a wonderful man in the eyes of his son all those years ago. Of course Thace hadn't been aware of his father's early war efforts as a child, efforts Zarkon had accelerated in declaring himself Emperor. 

Luckily for Thace his brother expected little more than his brief presence while they picked at fresh fruit and breads. Rarely was Thace hungry for any of them, the true edge of his hunger dealt with during a larger meal among nobles and visiting military leaders in the great hall or something quieter in his own room. Today was unfortunately the former affair, and Thace wanted nothing less than rising from his bed to face his day. 

“You must rise, my lord,” Ulaz's voice came from behind the curtains that draped around Thace's bed. “The Emperor will expect you shortly.” 

“He expects a great many things, Ul, none of which I look to with excitement,” Thace grumbled into a closely clenched pillow. Between the pillow and the curtains he knew he would not be heard. Only that kept him confident enough to use the old nickname of their youths. 

“I know druid,” he sighed as he tossed the blanket back and the pillow aside. “But thank you for the reminder, Ulaz. My brother would be... touchy if I was late.”

The druid was standing there patiently when Thace threw the curtains back, and the man had the gall to be standing there perfectly composed for the day. Never once had he seen the man with a single fur out of place, whereas most mornings Ulaz saw him with rumpled bedclothes and fur squashed in awkward positions. And the man didn't even comment. 

“Shall I summon the valet?” Ulaz asked smoothly as Thace stood. 

“No,” Thace answered like he always did. Now that he was used to the sometimes complicated layers of royal garb he was glad to avoid having someone dress him for all but the most ceremonial of situations. The valet seemed to take some degree of offense, especially since Thace knew the man was one of his brother's people, a fact proved when one of the negative off-hand comments he made of his brother came up in a private meeting. Zarkon wanted him to know he was being watched. 

“I could assist if you desire,” Ulaz offered as he always did. With what Thace had learned the night before, though, it was far from something he could handle. 

Thace waved the male away as he moved to where the valet had at least laid out his clothes for the day. No matter what he thought of it the valet still had access to his rooms for this, and Thace had to allow that he had good taste. The rich navy tones of the tunic were good against his fur's shade, the cut was flattering, and it lacked the ridiculous collar that seemed so popular these days. Beyond that dressing for court was a relatively quick process when one wasn't allowed armor or a weapon. Not that it was expressly forbidden for Thace to wear such things, just that Zarkon and his most loyal supporters made Thace's life hell when he did. 

“Sit,” Ulaz spoke when Thace was done, and he gestured briefly to the low chair at Thace's vanity. The request made no sense until Thace saw himself in the mirror and realized just how out of place his fur had gotten in the night. With a sigh he obeyed the druid, watching his reflection closely as a silvered brush was lifted by Ulaz. 

“You are too kind, druid,” he said once Ulaz had started the bristles through his fur. Focusing on the words did a lot to save him from embarrassment because when he was speaking it was easier not to purr. 

“You spoke often when we were young about how you missed your mother doing this for you,” Ulaz spoke with the same level done as ever. It was frustrating in the weirdest way. 

“I am surprised you remember the mutterings of a lonely kit after so long,” Thace sighed, leaning into the brush. Already he could hear the low thrum of the purr building into his voice to pair with the rumbling he could feel building in his chest. 

“Decades may have passed, my lord, but my memories of that dear friend of mine are still present. I remember much and more of who you were.”

Not for the first time Thace had to hold back from turning and reaching for the man's hand, to grip him as they had as kits, just to have him close. His memories of Ulaz had all been of a fine friend, and trustworthy, and he longed for that again. Yet with the changes of their society over the years, the trust he would need to give for that would not be so easily offered, especially after last night. The confession had changed too many things to be waved away so soon. 

Thankfully Ulaz finished with his task, and satisfied with his reflection, Thace rose. Briefly he considered the glinting metal of his coronet hanging from the vanity mirror. With the passing of his sister he had rights to wear it, but... Thace turned his back on the creation of twisted metal set with yellow stones and moved to the door. Ulaz fell predictably in behind him and together they strode from the suite and made for where his brother awaited. 

* * * * * *

“Still no spring in your step, Thace.”

The greeting, if that was what his brother meant by it, had come in one form or another for months now. Ever since... Thace looked briefly back at the door that had closed behind him. On the other side Ulaz stood with his brother's guards, as responsible as them for the protection of this room as the guards. Where Thace was Ulaz was, even if it was only at a distance. 

“I did not ask to be gifted a druid for for protection or any other use,” Thace answered, a sharp edge to his voice as he moved to a chair with a comfortable cushion that he used most mornings. 

“Was he too willing?” Zarkon asked with a full-toothed smile. A smile full of threat for a Galra. “I could give you one of the human slaves. They have more fight. Sometimes.”

Thace snatches a small slice of picked fruit off of the tray between him and his brother's massive wooden seat and thrust it into his mouth. One could not hiss in derision if they were chewing. This was not a fight he wanted to rehash. Last time his brother had forced a slave upon him to assist with bathing, and when Thace sent her a away his brother had her lashed for 'failing to properly serve her new master.' Better he have a believable argument. 

“He has no sense of pleasure,” Thace answers after a moment taken to chew and swallow. “I would not be interested despite his offer from that alone. As it is, I am plainly uninterested in Ulaz in such a manner. Or anyone I do not select on my own, brother.”

The simple acknowledgment of relation from Thace rather than using Zarkon's title earned him angrily narrowed eyes, but no comment. 

“Well, on to more important matters then,” Zarkon spoke at last. A brief gesture brought Haggar from whatever corner she had hidden in to best make her morning dramatic entrance, and she opened the door to welcome in Captain Sendak. 

The captain was an unattractive man who bore many scars from Zarkon's war. A patch covered one formerly glowing eye, and his left arm ended in an awkward arm of metal that moved with creaks and starts. A druid experiment, Thace heard, but not one with enough success at this point to send the soldier back out. Instead he served as the military briefing officer, updating Zarkon on the state of the war against the humans. Once Thace had sat in on briefings his father heard on crop issues and washed out roads, on conflicts between nobles and statuses of important public works. Now he was privy only to the war.

As ever Thace tuned out the bleak news and focused instead on the small selection of fruits and pastries If he shut his ears and made sure to chew each bite to a fine mush he could pass the time rather effectively. Sure enough he soon found himself being dismissed by his brother. The bow he gave the man was the briefest he could manage without overt insult, and with an impatient wave and a curious look from Sendak, Thace escaped the nearly suffocating confines of of his brother's sitting room. Ulaz didn't even give him a curious look as he fell into step behind him. This was just how mornings went. 

Still... he wanted to ask Ulaz about why Zarkon would be so interested in what they did behind closed doors. He was even halfway to getting the phrasing right when movement down the hall caught his attention. A flash of red and purple so dark as to be almost black made him smile. There was only one thing in the castle that would look like that in this area. It brought a gentle smile to Thace's lips, and he pointedly did not look to the door it had darted into. Instead he looked over at Ulaz. 

“I hope you are very alert today, my druid. I heard from the Emperor that there may have been a little sneaky thief in our halls,” Thace said, his voice playful. Hopefully the druid did not think he meant a serious threat. 

What he got back was a brief glance aside by Ulaz and the deepest softening of his stern features Thace had ever known. He almost looked like a man happy to see a favorite hunting dog. 

“I promise I will allow no sneaky thieves near you, my prince. Unless, of course, they bribe me with cookies or threaten me with tickles,” Ulaz assured him with surprising seriousness. “Unfortunately, if that happens...”

There was motion as Ulaz trailed off, as if there had been some agree upon plan. Maybe they did. Thace hardly knew all that druids were capable of doing. None of that mattered now, not with a rush of red and near-black and laughter before Thace was hit by a giggling bundle with enough force to stagger him back a step. Stagger right back into Ulaz who held him with surprising ease until he had his balance again and he could kneel to the young boy before him. 

“Ulaz didn't protect me,” Thace teased as he pulled the kit into his arms. 

“He said he wouldn't,” the boy returned as Thace lifted him enough to rub cheeks with the kit before embracing him fully. “Cause he knows I tickle.”

“I do,” Ulaz answered as he circled Thace enough to see the boy, and when Thace glanced at him he was shocked to see a smile on his lips. Shocked and quite pleased. Ulaz being so reactive was uncommon, and very nice. 

“So mean, Keith,” Thace pouted as he stood with the boy in his grip. “Stalking the halls like a little hunter, attacking your poor uncle.”

The boy beamed up at him with his unusual purple eyes, his smile full of blunt teeth that echoed those of his sire. Keith wasn't like other Galra in the castle. Unlike many he wasn't full-blood Galra. Thace's older sister, the late Crown Princess Jovianna, had once admitted to Thace that the boy's father had been a human lord of some standing, one their father had arranged for her to marry. Peace with the humans, their father had claimed in those days, could be achieved through marriage. After Kreyath had grown ill, Zarkon had forbidden his sister from wedding the human, but not before Jovianna had grown to care for the human she visited in the springs, enough to prematurely consummate the pending marriage. After her passing her son Keith, known as Kethrik among the Galra, had been cast into a sort of limbo due to Zarkon's low opinion of humans. That left Thace as the only real family his nephew had that cared for him. 

“Can I come eat with you, Uncle Thace?” Keith asked, his arms looping around Thace's neck. There was no brush of fur on fur for it, Keith having inherited the barely existent body fur of his father, and yet a full head of long dark fur on his head that his small ears almost seemed invisible in, just little points sticking up on top of his head. It was a blessing that the boy at least had Galra color to his bare skin, keeping him easily differentiated from the pink of pure-blood human slaves. That and the rich dress of the boy kept him different from the others, not to mention the team of nannies that frequently hovered around the boy. 

“That might not be a good idea, my lord,” Ulaz warned Thace. He must have moved closer still because the words were almost a whisper in Thace's ear, warm breath making Thace's ear twitch. 

On an academic level Thace understood why. The nobles were terrible to the kit if he was alone or with only his nannies. They needed to be exposed to the kit more in Thace's opinion. If for some reason Zarkon did choose to do away with Thace, Keith would be his heir. The nobles needed to be reminded of that, and that because of his mixed blood the boy was growing faster than most Galra, both physically and mentally. Keith might be able to be treated as a full heir by fifteen years rather than thirty as was common with the longer lived Galra. 

“Now that sounds like a lovely idea,” Thace smiled. “You can sit in my lap. We'll want to fetch your nanny, though, to let her know.”

“So we can go to your room?” Keith asked as he smiled up at Thace. 

“No, darling boy. We eat at the high table today. And since the Emperor won't be there, we get to be the highest up.”

At first the boy seemed reluctant, but with that news the excitement was restored. “Okay.”

With the child in his arms Thace headed off down the hall. Clearly someone would be searching for the kit, and Thace wanted to comfort them before any issues arose. He also needed to know when and where to deliver the child after. Taking him from his safe routine for too long might be a bad idea, upset whatever learning cycle they had set up for him. 

“Can Ulaz sit with us too? He's always super nice when I poke him while you talk to Uncle Emperor. He gave me a sweet once.”

Now that was news to Thace. 

“Sadly, he can't. He's a druid, Keith. Druids protect us. So he needs to stand back and watch for sneaky thieves. Ones that don't tickle.”

The news made Keith frown, and Thace resolved to do something to cheer the boy up soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you next Sunday friends.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist giving a bit more kid Keith before Sunday. Expect regularly scheduled chapter then.

If Zarkon was the one to enter the gran hall, a crier would announce the Emperor and call all to stand. The same honor was no longer accorded to the Princes of Gal. Perhaps it was better that way. Thace was glad to be able to sneak as close as he could to his seat without comment. Besides that, young ears could be easily harmed by loud noises and with Keith on his hip, Thace was more cautious. 

“It's still so big,” Keith whispered to Thace, and Thace chuckled to his nephew. 

“Di you think it would be smaller?” 

“Yeah,” the boy answered petulantly. “Figured it was so big when Uncle Emperor was around cause they needed it big.”

“How would it get smaller?” Thace asked. His ears could pick out the growing murmur following them. Halfway to his seat without much comment, it was a new record, or near enough to one for him to be amused and annoyed all at once. 

“Druids,” Keith answered simply before growing silent. They were close to the high seats now, and perhaps that scared the boy, that and the nobles around frowning at them. General Prorok, though, was openly glaring at them, and that was likely it more than anything else. The man was ambitious and vile in Thace's estimations, and it would do well for the boy to be cautious.

Ulaz fell back as Thace neared his seat at the main table. The largest seat sat empty for Zarkon, and the one to the left of that was reserved for Haggar and stood empty as well. Thace himself was reserved the seat to the right of his brother, and next to that was Prorok, closer than he had any right to be. The seat at Thace's right was for Keith and to sit in it was to claim higher status than Prorok had any imaginable right to. Not that Thace was fully surprised. Thace would put money on Prorok taking his seat when Thace ate in his suite The man thought too highly of himself and there was nothing Thace could do to correct him. 

“That's my seat,” Keith murmured as he hid his face in Thace's neck. The way the boy curled against him made sitting difficult but Thace managed it with a rough grace. 

“That is alright,” Thace assured his nephew, and he made certain that his voice was loud enough to be heard by Prorok as he turned the boy in his lap to face the table. “General Prorok doesn't have a seat of his own right now. So he needs to borrow one. And you're a prince, Kethrik. Princes help their subjects with their needs.”

Thace could see Prorok's fur bristling at the jab. 

“Like seats?” Keith asked. 

“Like seats,” Thace confirmed primly. Speaking of... “He could likely spare your plates though.”

Prorok actually sputtered as Thace reached over and collected the plates, silverware and cup. The fact that Prorok summoned replacements immediately didn't bother him. He was too busy helping Keith arrange plates he likely wouldn't use in front of them. Keith would more likely than not eat right off of Thace's plate and that would make the insult to Prorok even better. 

With their arrival acting as a cue the servants began to move about with more than just pitchers of drink. Soon enough there were platters of food being brought around, all starting before Thace and Keith. He was careful to measure out reasonable portions of the meats for them, and a larger than normal selection of breads and vegetables to suit Keith's needs. While he was selecting some fruit and cheese pastries, Prorok cleared his throat. Great, conversation time. 

“Looking to show off your parenting skills?” Prorok asked. “That eager for a wedding?”

“I am merely bonding with my dear nephew,” Thace countered as Keith reached out to snatch up a tart. He supposed he could allow one or two. Any more than that and even he would have to face the wrath of the nannies. 

“Suppose your brother doesn't want you breeding just yet,” Prorok needled, but Thace kept himself levelheaded. 

“The Emperor,” Thace reminded the man sharply, not beyond reminding Prorok of his place, “may make a marriage arrangement for me and I would be honored to obey him for the sake of our nation. But whether I wish to be a parent at this time is irrelevant.”

“Yes, given he gave you a male to bed with.”

Thace couldn't help but flinch at that statement. Apparently it was what his brother had intended, and the barb landed because of it. He could hit himself for the reaction, because it drew Keith's attention from licking jelly off of his fingers. 

“Don't be mean to Uncle Thace,” the boy demanded with all the confidence of a child as he looked to Prorok. 

“The Galra are a hard people, kit. If he can't handle it, he doesn't belong here,” Prorok countered. 

“Nuh-uh, they're fluffy.”

The response caught the man far enough off guard that Prorok just stared. He looked ridiculous enough that Thace couldn't help but laugh. Beaten by a kit, that was enough to bring snickers to a lesser man. As it was Thace had more than enough control for the moment. Still, he wished his sister could have seen this. Zarkon had wanted her for Prorok before he had the woman killed. She would have howled in pleasure at the sour look on his face put there by her own son. 

“Indeed they are,” Thace agreed with his nephew. 

“'Cept me and 'Laz,” Keith continued easily. 

That, apparently, Prorok felt confident jumping on, because the General snorted at the comment. “Yes, Thace does seem to be overly fond of the type. True Galra are well furred.”

“And Uncle Emperor,” Keith continued his listing as if he hadn't heard Prorok at all. Not for the first time Thace found himself amazed by the wonderfully selective hearing of a kit. 

“His Imperial Grace is just a bit long in the tooth,” Prorok tried to backpedal, tried to make the insult stick to some without others. 

“Old,” Thace corrected immediately, pleased to plainly state the not-quite insult Prorok had stumbled on. He could get away with the statement given his brother was well over a century older than him. “And yet to wed. I feel bad that he does not know the joy of being around kits. You learn so much about yourself through them.”

Keith nodded in agreement. “He never wants to play.”

“Who would want to waste time with a half-blooded bastard?”

Perhaps the words were not meant to be heard, but the fact that they were heard from the sharp inhalation of a servant and a stiffening of the back of the Galra beyond Prorok, Thace had to react. Keith shifted a bit in Thace's lap, clearly reading the tension in the air. Maybe he even understood he was being insulted, because when Thace looked down he could see the way the boy was biting his lip to keep himself calm. Thace, careful to lift the child clear of his lap so he could stand, was shocked to find Ulaz was at his elbow immediately. The druid wasn't there to restrain him though, not to stand up for his honor or even act on his behalf. No, Ulaz took Keith securely into his arms and stood back as Thace rose. That was good. A Galra in his position would lose face if they let a druid fight for them in an inappropriate manner. Druids were for self-defense of nobles, and for religious manners, not to stand when offense was given. 

The Prince rose with all the grace and dignity he could muster, to be certain all eyes and ears would be upon what came next. So many people could tell a more consistent tale to his brother and his many spies would agree with what they said. It was better to make a spectacle and make himself look temperamental than to let fake tales go back to his brother. So Thace cleared his voice, allowed his eyes to narrow some, and turned on Prorok. 

“Jealous fits you poorly, Prorok. As I can only imagine jealousy would cause you to speak so harshly and lose all sense. The kit is now and shall always be known to you as Prince Kethrik or 'my lord' until such time as my brother, his Imperial Grace, sees fit to disown him or give him my standing as Crown Prince. He is second in line for the Imperial throne, and you would do well to remember it as he may one day hold reign over you. What is more, while he is of mixed blood it is from a union my late and dearly beloved father wished, and his father is the Duke of the Human province of Kogane. As the man has yet to produce another heir through marriage or adoption, he is heir there too by human law. This makes him doubly your senior in this court, even with the state of the war. You will treat him, and myself, with the difference due his position.”

Yes, everyone was listening now. Thace could see it in the way the woman at Prorok's right was pointedly not looking at them. No doubt she was the General's second, and didn't know how to handle this situation. All other eyes, though, were pinned to them. 

“All know your behavior comes from the fact that his mother much preferred a human to yourself, Prorok, and even with her passing that slight festers in you, does it not? Pathetic to hold the grudge for well on three years now. But you are a soldier, and wounds ache you long after they heal on the outside. I am sorry to see that a man who is supposed to be as good a military mind as you can cling so long to such pointless hate. Now, I bid you good day, General, and all without asking how exactly it is that manage to lead your men from so far behind the line of battle that it is a wonder you even know what a human looks like.”

That comment brought up a general hiss of shock across the room, and Thace cooly ignored it. He could not rightly dismiss his brother's general from his presence. Yet some, he knew, still saw him as a face of the royalty, and walking away would be snub enough for now. He turned to Ulaz and the druid placed his nephew in Thace's arms. As he walked away he heard the sound of cluttering plates behind him, and within a moment Ulaz was at his side. 

“Servants will follow with your meal,” Thace observed to his guardian druid. “What say we take it to the arbor?” 

Keith's cheer was well worth the scene. 

* * * * * *

Trees were far from common in the limits of the city of Gal. Outside of the borders of the booming city were some forests, but not as thick as in the human territories. Keith, who had never been out of the palace, delighted in the place as Thace well knew. He allowed the kit to frolic through them. As he waited for the servant to lay out their previously abandoned breakfast. With the faintest smile Thace watched the joy of the boy, envying the simple pleasure of his nephew. 

His pace was disturbed by Ulaz moving to his side. From the corner of his eye he could see the look of the druid's face, but he could not read anything in what he found. 

“That display was ill-advised,” Ulaz pointed out, voice rational and smooth as ever. No, not as ever. The druid's tone had been different with Kethrik, and when defending himself to Thace the night before. 

“I won't have him insulting my nephew,” Thace countered immediately. “Keith has no one else to stand up for him. Not since his mother passed. And he never even had a chance to know her.”

“I pity him that,” Ulaz admitted softly, and Thace didn't think he could argue that. Ulaz seemed more genuine when he spoke of the boy. 

“You have a soft spot for him. Are you gentle with all kits, or is Keith a special case?”

All he got in response was a knowing smile. 

“I believe your meal is now prepared, my prince,” Ulaz answered instead. 

Trust the druid to be evasive. But the gentleness was enough to make Thace smile. 

“Will you fetch the sneak thief for me, Ul?” Thace smiled. This time he was glad to use the old name. 

For a moment he could have sworn he saw a playful smile on Ulaz's face. Let him have his amusement then. Thace was too hungry to care and he trusted that the druid would be certain to keep his nephew safe. The Prince returned instead to the wooden table set toward the middle of the small arbor, shaded by the boughs of a large oak tree. It was the only oak in the whole collection of the palace. The sapling it had grown from had been gifted to Thace's great-grandfather and with the passing of each year the druids worked to maintain the old sign of peace. As with a great many other trees present the druids were responsible for the care of each tree so that no one grew too small or was too young to show off well. They infused the plants with doses of quintessence, guiding their growth and health. This tree in particular was one Thace was fond of, he had climbed it once as a kit, only to grow too afraid to get himself back down. Zarkon had helped him back then, back when Thace was young and his brother was kinder, perhaps for the benefit of their father. 

Still, it was a delightful memory and Thace allowed himself to smile as he sat to his meal. Soon enough Ulaz returned with Keith in tow. Thace gestured over to an open seat for Ulaz, and he was surprised to see Keith climb into Ulaz's lap once the druid was seated. 

“The Prince says I am eating with you,” Ulaz informed Thace, and Thace had to smile at his druid. 

“If I invited you, then you would call it inappropriate,” he chuckled. 

“Perhaps Prince Kethrik is more charming and persuasive than you,” Ulaz suggested, but his voice was more playful than anything else.

“Yeah,” Keith agreed, his half-hidden ears high and giving away his happiness as he looked seriously at his meal. 

“That hurts, Ul, bad,” Thace smiled at them both. 

“I know, Thace,” Ulaz agreed.

Hearing his given name from the druid, and not in anger, was a true delight. Like a music his body hadn't experienced for far too long, and it made him want to dance. Thace had to smile even wider. 

“Maybe you'll dine with me more readily if I bring Keith with me?” Thace wondered aloud. 

“Yeah!” the boy cheered around a mouthful of sweetmeat. 

“I suppose I could allow for it,” Ulaz mused briefly. “Say... one breakfast a week where the three of us fine here, or in your suit, my lord, if the weather does not agree.”

The offering was beyond generous and Thace gaped for a moment. 

“Please?” Keith asked, squirming in Ulaz's lap. “Please, Uncle Thace? Me and you and Ulaz?” 

“Please?” Ulaz parroted, and his eyes practically shone with his mirth. 

“I will speak with your nanny,” Thace promised his nephew warmly. And Ulaz by extension. “A dinner as well. We'll even bring entertainment for dinners. A puppet show or musicians for example?”

Kethrik nodded vigorously and the warmth Ulaz looked down at the kit with warmed Thace to the core. Perhaps his old friend really was still in there.

Tonight, he resolved, he would find out.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little easier to update tonight than tomorrow. See you next weekend.

Little happened in the day of the Galra Crown Prince. At this point in his life he was little more than a figurehead. Another man might abuse that, live only for his own pleasure. Thace was not that man. He moved about the castle among the common servants, talking and learning. When he was done speaking he would spend time in the library reading histories or philosophical texts. Occasionally something frivolous just to entertain himself. With that done he would move to combat practice with a guard. Perhaps he might not be comfortable wearing a blade outside of his apartments, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to know how to use one. By late afternoon he returned to the silence of his suite, with little else to do. 

That meant that at this moment he sat, curled up, on a couch and he was dreadfully bored. A bored Thace meant he had to do something to keep his brain from melting with said boredom. Which meant it was time for the take he was putting off to finally be faced. 

“Druid Ulaz, come join me. There is something I wish you speak to you regarding.”

Thace watched as the druid rose from the stool by the door out of his suite. Even now Ulaz seemed to avoid the comforts available to him unless there was direct prompting from Thace. Three months of assurances didn't seem to get the druid to understand he could at least have a cushioned chair if he insisted on staying by the door. It wasn't surprising at all that, when Thace gestured for the druid to seat himself on a nearby cushion, he hestiated before finally folding himself down onto it with his usual grace. 

While Ulaz settled himself, Thace continued to wonder just how he was going to test the druid to his satisfaction. A good spy would not give themselves up easily. Thace knew he was poorly suited to this sort of double-dealing, the plotting it would need to uncover the truth. If only he had realized before he had the druid watching him with impassive yellow eyes. 

“You are concerned with my loyalty still,” Ulaz observed, and the unexpected statement made Thace jump, his fur fluffing in his tension. 

“Yes,” Thace agreed reluctantly. “I want to trust you, desperately. I need a friend, Ul, and I do not doubt you can see that. I also know that you are an attractive piece of bait if you are really my brother or Haggar's man. No question can I ask to be certain of who you give yourself to. There is nothing I can say or do to be certain enough to make a decision with true confidence. Do you understand my dilemma?” 

“Of course I have faced it before myself,” Ulaz shrugged, and that was a statement that Thace wanted to tear into. What could he mean by it? But rather than allowing himself a chance to think, he had to focus, pricking his ears forward as Ulaz continued. “In your position you cannot blindly offer trust. I both understand and grieve that. There are things I could offer to help prove myself, but even those may not reassure you as you cannot necessarily trust methods druids might possess, such as a quintessence bonding.”

Druids being masters of quintessence meant there may be no way at all for Thace to trust what proof a druid might be able to offer through their magics. Or that he could really understand just what such a method would entail. 

“Then we are at an impasse,” Thace sighed. 

“Yes,” Ulaz agreed. “But I would like to try the druid method at least, if I may.”

It was a lot to ask but Thace was here for this end, was he not? His goal was to try and see if everything he had heard Ulaz say, everything he had seen Ulaz do, could support what he most wanted of the man. Was there a harm in what Ulaz wanted to offer to him? Perhaps he might catch whatever fog hung over his old friend's sense, but would Zarkon benefit from such a thing? Ulaz was clearly still capable of independent reasoning, still holding some degree of emotion in him for how he chided Thace and seemed to care easily for Keith. Even a smidgeon of emotion left, not to mention a functioning and independent mind would be more than enough for him to become a far larger menace to his older brother. Threat, no. Menance? Absolutely. 

After all, as a younger brother he was certain it could be considered a natural skill. 

At last Thace nodded to the druid, his voice still caught up in his head, part of an endless debate on whether or not to trust the other man. Some of the arguments grew angrier as Ulaz rose and extended a hand to Thace. They all left him as he sat there, bemused and starting at that pale hand. 

“What?” his voice finally asked as it rushed back to him. 

“This can be a bit physically intense and draining,” Ulaz answered, his voice soft and clearly meant to be comforting. “Normally this is done with both parties lying down. The best place for that here would be your bed. As we lack the ability to draw the necessary containment circle around it, though, we will have to make use of the floor. I will show you where, my lord, and you shall assist me in setting up.”

There was no question in his tone, only a series of simple statements and assumed obedience. It made Thace think back to all the half-baked adventures and schemes that a young Ulaz had encouraged him into as a kit. That more than anything got Thace to his feet, laying his hand in that of the druid. Together they moved from the cozy lounge area into Thace's sitting room, where there was a more open space near his vanity. It was here that Thace once had to go through endless clothing fittings, mirrors brought over and a stool rolled out for him to stand on during the work. Thace had avoided the whole sort of affair for years now. Why should a man in his position care about fashion? Soon enough he would need new clothes, unable to keep himself away from the need for newer clothes more in line with what the court preferred these days. For now, though, the space was large, open, and clearly ideal for what Ulaz intended. 

At Ulaz's direction he helped to roll back the massive woven rug to bare the cool stone floor beneath. Then he found himself directed to collect a bundle of inky black and sunny yellow candles from Ulaz's room, a place filled with a multitude of rich and strange scents and kept far darker than Thace preferred for his own rooms. As Thace made a circle with the candles, Ulaz worked admit them to draw a complicated circle in sand so red it had to have been collected from the deep deserts to the north. All around Ulaz strewed herbs he crushed in his pale hands after he burned them just enough to build up a strange scent mingling sage, citrus and burnt earth in the air. 

“I thought druid magic was more... point and things glow,” Thace observed dully as he walked around the circle and lit each candle in turn, careful not to smudge the carefully placed sands. 

“Some manipulation of quintessence is just that,” Ulaz agreed as he followed Thace around their circle. Thace had to admit he was a bit bothered by the fact that when he looked over his shoulder he could see the candles behind Ulaz burning with purple light rather than natural yellow. Even as he noticed the color Ulaz's foot fell softly next to another candle, and the fire leapt higher for a second as the color changed to match the others behind it. “Not all of it is that, though. What we do here is a precaution. What we will be doing temporarily connects you to my quintessence. The circle will keep my power contained within it, as well as blocking out anyone who would try and scry upon our interaction. Normally scrying into the mind of a druid is impossible, due to our deeper connections to the quintessence, but this will open my mind, making it vulnerable from the outside. The circle thereby serves as protection from inside and without. All Druid magics require such protections in one manner or another. Most people are just unaware of it because our bodies serve to protect the quintessence within us, and the protections woven into our robes in the silver threads protect us from and allow us to channel the quintessence outside of us safely.”

That, Thace supposed, explained the odd affectation of the silver being shared by all druids. Some seemed to spurn overt displays of wealth, and yet still wore the silvered robes. It left him wondering what it meant that there was no obvious silver threading worked into Haggar's robes. 

“Lay down here,” Ulaz ordered as the last fire turned violet and closed the circle. His hand took Thace's and led him slowly into the middle of the circle. Two small pillows had been laid on opposite sides of the interior, and Thace moved as directed, not surprised to find Ulaz lying down already, his head at Thace's feet and his feet at Thace's head. Once Thace was still and comfortable he found warmth alongside his fingers. Looking across at Ulaz, he found the other man with the tiniest curl of his lip, the druid's gaze focused on where the backs of his fingers brushed against Thace's. At last Ulaz met Thace's gaze and nodded, and with that he twined their fingers together the best he could in the position.

For a moment all Thace could think about was the silence between them, the warmth of their hands together and the tickle of their fur brushing. It was almost enough of a distraction to keep Thace from feeling uncomfortable with the violet candlelight. 

“Stay still,” Ulaz ordered and Thace didn't even risk nodding or speaking to relay his understanding. 

Even as he made that conscious decision the fire from the candles leapt three times as high, pillars of burning violet rage and then... they were gone. Everything was gone. It was like his eyes had closed even though he could feel them resting open. He could feel more than that, more than made sense at that. He was overly aware of the warmth of the small fires all feeding into his body. The smell of the burnt herbs seemed like a crown around his head, a chain around his throat that made him feel lighter than a breeze in the first days of spring. There was an energy in each thing as it gripped him, the fire most of all, and he was almost scared of that. The energy of the smoke and the warmth and in everything around him was his, and his energy was theirs. It was all connected in a way he could never explain. 

_The quintessence of all things, living and otherwise,_ Ulaz spoke, but the words were also Thace's own, said of his own mouth, his own lips, his own mind. 

_Our mind, though mine at it's origin,_ Ulaz corrected. _For now you are of me and I am of you. We are connected, and that tie binds us more deeply than quintessence normally ties. So I offer this to you, all I am and all I have ever been. Know me as I know myself. Find your truth within me, Thace._

The name constrained him in a way, somehow serving to limit Thace as Thace. Yet he was more, or steeped in more. There was warmth around him, filling him. The warmth of Ulaz. 

_Warmth._ His mother sang sweet little nothing songs as she held him tightly in her arms. Ulaz hated his short fur in the winters. Father always sent him home for the winter rather than letting him stay in the royal city. Winter was a time of family his father said, disregarding the fact that the harsh winters of their southern lands were far beyond simply harsh for Ulaz and his northerner mother. Their shorter fur coats weren't suited to the snow and cold like they were for other Galra bloodlines, like his father and siblings. Come out and play his brothers would call, and still Ulaz stayed behind in the family home by the fire, curled in the warmth of his mother's arms. 

_Warmth._ His belly was full of it as he laughed. Thace laughed too, his voice high and unbroken into that of a man. Ulaz liked it better this way. Their voices were high like the tang of leburberry juice, and their hearts warm like their guts, full of stolen wine. Thace's voice was in his ear, warm and happy and slurring and Ulaz giggled as he leaned against the prince. His friend. His Thace. 

_Warmth._ The masked man radiated it into his body and mind as Ulaz clasped his arm. Even now he wondered why they chose him but he assumed Kol... 

Thace jerked a little at the forceful way he was shunted away from that particular memory. The mental push also drove him from his fixation on Ulaz's memories of warmth. Instead he found a rush of everything else. Filtering out the memories was beyond hard. Everything came at once, past and present, and Ulaz didn't guide him. The druid kept him away from what Thace felt to be more intimate moments, and anything that gave him a glimpse of the strangely masked Galra. 

What he left open to Thace were the memories of his role as druid. The training and rituals were all there for Thace, the pride at the first plant he coaxed into blooming, the unique ecstasy of tapping into the quintessence of the moon and the goddess beyond. Underlying it all were the twin senses of utter loathing and contempt for Zarkon and Haggar. Even with the man's diminished sense Thace could almost taste the bile they drew into Ulaz's mouth with every memory. With Ulaz's memories Thace felt the surge of longing when the young druids were going to be set to Thace. The pride when he was chosen. The pain when he realized that he could never be what his friend remembered. 

You are to watch him, Zarkon instructed as Ulaz prostrated himself before his Emperor. You are to tell me all. 

My druids are loyal, Haggar cackled, the sound like claws on metal in Ulaz's ears. 

He loathed them, wanted to lash out with the quintessence at his fingertips. But Haggar was too strong. There was no choice but for Ulaz to obey. She had forced obedience, to a degree. She didn't know, couldn't know, that someone had beat her there. Maybe she had kept him from the oaths he gave, maybe she forced lies to his lips, but what they gave him let him fight back. 

I will do your will, he promised, and Ulaz knew he would have to create believable lies. 

The second Thace caught onto the idea of believable lies he found himself bombarded with new memories. Claims of Thace admitting desires for a kitchen maid, lamenting a lack of horse, hours of stargazing and reading on astrology, all scrawled in druidic script and passed to a guard. Other spies in Thace's household with their heads clasped in Ulaz's hands as he placed agreeing lies into their minds. Ulaz was weaving a lie of Thace growing more bored and frivolous in his pursuits during his captivity, but slowly enough to be believed given Thace's privacy and evasion of other prying eyes. 

The most recent memory offered was of earlier that day, watching while Thace tested his sword work against a guard. A message saying Thace confessed his interest in swordplay came only in that it was an exercise method that might keep his body attractive. With it came a brief flash of Ulaz's own appreciation of that form before the memory was pulled away. 

_It all seems convenient I expect. But this is the best I can offer you._

_You said you weren't their spy. Yet your own memories say that is a lie,_ Thace countered, but somehow he couldn't rouse anger in himself. That was worrying. 

_This isn't your mind to coax such deep emotion from. The anger can and will be there when your quintessence is less deeply tied to mine, and your mind separates itself from my hold._

_Seems dangerous, this sort of thing. Do druids often do this to share memories?_

_Only senior druids. And then it is only for two purposes, neither like this. They share and gift memories of how to manipulate quintessence, the basics. We learn the fine control ourselves. But it is used almost only for that. Otherwise we might not respect the earning of our gifts. The other time this is done is to share important knowledge and memories that might be lost with pending death in a druid. That is far more dangerous._

_And can all people hide things like you did?_ Thace asked, unable to help the way he felt frustrated by those masked Galra memories. _How could you do that with another druid who has real control?_

_They don't look,_ Ulaz's mind chuckled around Thace, a sensation that shook Thace to the depths of his bones. _There is a downside, though. The Mother of Constellations can use this sort of bonding to enforce her will in her subordinates. She didn't pry when she did it with me, just suppressed my senses and both created and forced lies within me. I cannot say that I am meant as a spy, but she cannot force the truth from me. In that I am lucky._

_Because of the masked Galra?_

Thace felt the queasiness from Ulaz at that question, and the affirmation underlying it. 

_Please, tell me of them._

_I can no more do that at this time than I can speak my intended role of spy aloud. Their oaths are based in quintessence as well, and her binding of me corrupted that. Haggar has chained me in a strange way, one I wish I could explain, that I wish I could tear from myself. But she cannot chain me enough to force me into what I do not want thanks to them. The conflicting bonds gives me some freedom for myself in my mind. The only way I could share that with you, can share so many truths, is with this connection. It was something I could not offer, though, without prompting. It is too dangerous, which is why I must now release you, Thace._

The name came with it's own weird sort of warmth. One that disappeared with fingers uncurling from Thace's. At last Thace truly opened his eyes and as he looked he found the candles all dead around them, barely even melted. Slowly he sat up, only to immediately feel dizzy and laying back down. 

“I said it was draining,” Ulaz chuckled lightly, and the noise started a violent headache in Thace's skull. 

“More warning next time, Ul,” Thace groaned. Within a heartbeat the druid was there at his side, lifting Thace easily in his arms. 

“I will make an ache reducing tisane, my Prince,” Ulaz promised, and for the first time Thace knew the possessiveness meant in the honorific. Even if Ulaz could not put as much emotion into the words as Thace would have liked, he had felt the loyalty and devotion. “Will you trust me enough to drink it?”

There was the crux of the matter. Could he trust Ulaz? 

“I think I will risk it enough to try,” Thace allowed, but only after Ulaz managed to maneuver them into Thace's bedroom and laid him out on his bed. At last he had made up his mind, and this was a risk he was more than willing to take. 

“Good,” Ulaz answered, and through barely open eyes Thace could have sworn he saw a true smile. “Now close your eyes and rest, Thace. I will bring the drink, and then I must clean up our mess. No one else can know what happened here today.”

Right, there were still appearances to keep up. That alone kept Thace from reaching for Ulaz's hand as the druid turned to walk away. More than anything he craved the warmth that came from the proximity of his friend, finally returned to him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's just make it Saturday's then.

“Your lies need more to actually back them up.” 

Thace watched as Ulaz's head snapped up from the paper he was looking at on the desk. Now that Thace knew of it all, Ulaz apparently cared less to hide it. Perhaps Thace could learn druidic runes to make sure, but there was no way to know if they were coded or magic. That, he reminded himself, was hard work in this castle. 

“I do?” Ulaz asked as he set his quill aside. “How?”

“Well, it would help if you didn't have to change the memories of my servants,” Thace pointed out as he finally sat up from his bed. Ulaz had been king enough to dim the room for him, but Thace was tied of being in bed. “Haggar might look more deeply one day. I would rather my only friend not be caught, Ul. Besides, taking you into my confidence should mean you have more relevant insights than that I am growing vain.”

“Tonight I was going to speak of your relationship with Kethrik,” Ulaz shrugged. “Haggar cares not for the boy. No one even speaks of a druid for him yet. Which makes sense with how they delayed yours, to our advantage.”

As Thace thought. Problem was that with how Prorok behaved today, Thace was certain the boy needed one to reinforce his position. 

“When I bathe I shall rant to the servant about how Prorok treated Keith,” Thace decided. “It will confirm what you shall tell them.”

“And what is that?” Ulaz smiled. It was always a beautiful smile. For half a second he remembered that Ulaz equated him with warmth and he turned away. 

“I am tired of my nephew being treated as he is. I am going to look into a formal adoption of him as my son. Included in that will be contact with his birth father to see that he consider formal recognition of Keith as heir, which I will offer to my brother as a way to minimize resistance of a human province, weaken their internal politics, and remove him as a possible heir to my brother in a direct method. I am also going to request that he have his own druid and bodyguard. You will say I seek your guidance on the former.”

“That is a lot for a single message,” Ulaz noted. “More than I normally give.”

“Then we will trickle it out to them. I shall start some as mutterings and conversations with servants, others I will speak to my brother about in the morning. Others I will go around him for, and you will confirm.”

When Thace turned he was Ulaz nodding. Hopefully that would not bite him in the ass. 

“A good plan,” Ulaz agreed. “Will you follow through though?”

Of course he would. How could Thace not? He nodded briefly at his friend. 

“Prorok is right, Ul. Keith is a child out of wedlock. No one will respect him as a heir to the empire. Not without formal adoption. It wipes the formal slate. People can still talk, but they will be forced to bow.”

Again Ulaz smiled softly. There was that faint warmth that came through so rarely thanks to Haggar. Thace was going to have to figure out how to break that. Ulaz deserved better. 

“You are as kind as I remember.”

There was a weird sort of twisting in his gut that forced Thace to look away nervously. 

“We have to be careful not to seem too involved,” Thace found himself sighing. “My brother is very interested in whether I am intimately involved with you. No doubt because he wants to control numbers of heirs and contenders to his power. Thus a potential male lover. I, of course, denied it. Your statements should not contradict.”

“If I have a love life it would not be anyone's concern but my own,” Ulaz answered smugly, as if it amused him to even need to consider such a thing. “Now go and bathe. No offense meant, but you are... slightly fragrant. You smell of smoke and herbs and training.”

The suggestion was a usual enough one, and one in line with what Thace intended, so he didn't even blink. It was going to do what he needed and reinforce his own goals. As he had noted he did still have the bath slave that he was responsible for. Te most he normally allowed her to do on many days was to deal with the warmth of the deep pool of water by activating the druid enchantments that lined it, as well as making sure his baths were properly stocked. If his brother had her beat he likely installed enough fear to make her seek any comfort speaking might give her. At the very least he could start to cultivate her as someone he spoke in front of in frustration. Ranting straight to her, though...

“Come with me.”

It was the best solution If he was busy shouting his ire at the druid about everything then it would make sense that he spoke before the girl. Yet when he looked to Ulaz to be certain his friend understood he saw the druid staring at him. Was that shock? Why would it be? 

“Having me join you in a bath would send the wrong message,” Ulaz explained after another moment of silence. Only then did Thace realize what it sounded like. He wanted to laugh, but it was careful to restrain himself. 

“Not in the bath itself,” Thace sighed, shaking his head. He was not going to let himself think too deeply on the implication. When he told his brother he wouldn't want someone who could not feel pleasure was true. That didn't mean he didn't find Ulaz quite attractive. Perhaps having him in the bath chambers proper would be a poor idea. 

“Of in the room now that I think about it. Could I ask you to stand either just inside with your back to the bath or just outside the door? I can be angrier if I have to bellow.”

The way Ulaz's ears twitched more than revealed his relief. Thace used to see the involuntary action a lot when they were kids. Strange how he had forgotten that until now. Perhaps his deep connection to Ulaz's memories was what reminded him. The relief was an intriguing thing, but something Thace was not going to delve into now. 

“Oh. That I can readily do for you, my Prince,” Ulaz agreed, bowing briefly. “It will help me craft my report later tonight, shall I go have the young woman prepare for you?” 

For once Thace was content to let someone else act for him. With a nod he sent Ulaz on his way, moving to select clothes for after his bath. Tonight he would see that Keith joined than for dinner. 

* * * * * *

The stars were as beautiful tonight as they were nearly any other night Thace stood on his balcony. Each viewing was beautiful in a unique way, as similar as each day of his life in the castle, and as different as well. Every chance to see the stars was a blessing even tonight when many were invisible behind wispy strings of clouds. A dance of veils hiding the stars and even slipping across the face of the moon. 

“They're marvelous,” Thace sighed as he moved forward onto the balcony, leaning readily against the railing. 

“Indeed,” Ulaz agreed. 

For the first time the druid had actually come out to join Thace in his nightly contemplation. Part of Thace was concerned as it meant no one was inside to look over Keith while his nephew napped off his dinner and a post dinner story about his mother. The boy had been too cute and small in Thace's massive bed for him to send his nephew back to his own rooms. That didn't mean that Thace meant to miss his private moment here. Not so private now, though. 

“Do you believe the legends the druids teach?” Thace asked, not looking to his druid. 

“Are you asking me to speak of the moon goddess and her children?” Ulaz returned, a touch of concern in his voice. “A change of heart?” 

Thace scoffed at that. “One can believe in the goddess without celebrating her. It's a lot easier if the only druid you have regular interactions with is the current Mother of Constellations.”

As he spoke he heard his old friend approaching, and as he picked out the sound of soft footsteps they were covered by wood scraping over stone. Thace glanced back to see a chair following his friend, and without a hand on it. Such a display of druids power was unusual.. Did it mean Ulaz trusted him enough to display what he was? Thace hoped so as he watched the man sit. 

“The moon grants us access to the quintessence we shape, so one only needs to see how we affect quintessence to prove her. The stars...”

“Her children and the countless lessons she has given in its mastery,” Thace agreed, bored of the rhetoric. “If the goddess is so wise and loves us, why allow war? Why give my brother power?” 

The question nagged at Thace as he looked to the stars at night. How did one believe in the face of that? 

“A question I have no answer for,” Ulaz admitted, and Thace watched as the druid cast his eyes heavenward. “It was my thought, growing up, that the goddess gave us all she did so that one day the Galra could figure out how to join her among the stars. Druids are... always drawn to them when we plumb the depths of our power. Perhaps the way you are called to them is her way of reaching back to you Thace, as she does to her druids.”

The suggestion made Thace huff a brief laugh. As if that were likely. Still, the idea was... thought provoking.

“Galra among the stars,” he sighed. “I think of the terror my brother could inflict if he had the power even one of the divinely made lights contained, and I fear. But they are beautiful.”

Ulaz chuckled at the comment and Thace turned fully to face him, leaning on the railing behind him. “Please don't talk to to me about the goddess. If it was her will that my brother and Haggar lead, I cannot love her as I should.” 

“Maybe you should convert and worship the Human gods,” Ulaz shrugged. “But I shall keep to the goddess myself. Service to her order has brought me to you again, and I am glad to serve her in return.”

Thace scoffed as he looked down at the seated druid. “Our traditions forced your dedication to her. You weren't divinely brought to me.”

“Is that so?” Ulaz asked. “Thace, there is more to it than that. If I was third born I would have gone to fight in the Emperor's war. Were I older still I would remain home. Younger and who knows what would have come of me. But instead I am here, in the service of my once and future best friend.”

“Future?” Thace asked, brushing aside the mysticism Ulaz was implying so he could instead tease his friend. 

“There is much to learn and know of each other,” Ulaz shrugged before smiling back at Thace. 

With that said the two settled into comfortable silence for a time, gazing up at the stars. What would it be like to be be among them? What wonders and knowledge did they hold that his people were not yet ready for? Did they know what means by which he could be free? 

“Do you know much about human gods?” Thace asked at length. Ulaz's attention immediately snapped to him and Thace looked away from that questioning gaze even as he worried at his lip with his teeth. 

“Are you seriously considering... Thace, I was joking,” the druid spoke in quick and hushed concern. “If your brother knew... No, worse, if Haggar did...” 

“Keith doesn't know where he comes from,” Thace cut the druid off to get him away from those concerns. As he spoke another chair slid forward, a quiet suggestion that he quickly accepted, perching himself right on the edge. 

“And if he repeated anything he learned to the wrong person, just one thing, it would be the end of him,” Ulaz sighed. “I will not tell him anything. I will not risk him like...”

“Stop thinking I would be so callous as to ask it,” Thace shook his head, frustrated by the way Ulaz was working himself up. “When I was young I was less interested in books. When I grew older and more interested in our supposed enemies I believed what my father said and the druids taught. And when Zarkon took over many of the writings by and on Humans disappeared from the libraries. I want to know more about them, however I can. One day, when Kethrik is ready, I want to be able to teach him about his father's people. I wondered if, as a druid, you might be able to at least teach me what you might know of their legends and gods. Do you?”

Ulaz nodded softly. “I will teach you what I know, my prince. Mayhaps I can even find more to teach you. We shall see.”

It was a relief to hear it offered. Thace gave a respectful gesture of two fingers to his brow, the salute of a student to teacher. How could he not respect the offer when Ulaz knew well he could be punished for teaching. To be interested at all would be seem as betraying his people his people and to confess his interest put him fully at Ulaz's mercy. He knew the druid knew it as well. Learning could earn the wrath of Haggar, and Thace was willing to be vulnerable in that manner. With that request more than anything he knew he had offered the fullness of his trust to his old friend. His life was truly in the druid's hands, and to be able to trust someone like that was almost dizzying. 

Dizzying and exhilarating. 

“May I ask you something in exchange?” Ulaz asked, his voice soft. 

“Anything, Ul. Anything at all.”

For once Ulaz looked truly hesitant, and while Thace looked to his friend he could see Ulaz look away. 

“Do you remember my sister Atessa?” 

Thace had to wrack his brain for a memory of the girl. He had met the youngest, to Thace's limited knowledge, of Ulaz's siblings only once. The girl had only been seven, and it had been for Ulaz's birthday they had met, so it had been very brief. Why the druid would bring her up now was beyond understanding.

“My mother sends me letters and her most recent says that my sister was present when General Prorok passed through my family's land when returning here to the north to speak to Zarkon. During my family's entertainment of the favored General, he took a liking to her and mother asked what I might know of him. They want a good marriage for her and...”

And Ulaz didn't want it to be Prorok. Not that Thace could offer himself either. How then to help? 

“Does she like children?” Thace asked at length. “Because when I bring Keith into my household I will need more people to help with him, beyond his old nanny. A playmate and companion. The pay would be good and I would offer your father assistance in making a good marriage for her, given a few years of service. 

Ulaz's smile could rival the moon's brilliance. Thace thought it was worthy of the goddess herself.


	6. Chapter 6

“Good morning, brother.”

Such a straightforward greeting from the Emperor was strange, or it would have been if Thace allowed it. Today, though, he refused to allow the Emperor to phase him with his behavior, predictable or otherwise. For the first time in a long time Thace had a plan for his life, and much of it revolved around being responsible for someone other than himself for a change. The first step to taking care of himself and his future was to secure that of his nephew. 

“Kethrik should join us in the mornings when we speak, my Emperor,” Thace responded, foregoing a proper greeting himself. 

Perhaps Zarkon had not been properly briefed by his druid. Perhaps he was a far better actor than Thace had ever estimated. Either way he almost took the look of confusion his brother worse as genuine. As it was Thace just moved confidently to his normal seat and perched himself upon it as if this were a normal conversation. Poise or oblivion? Either way Thace kept on. 

“Why would we? He is only a kit,” Zarkon asked. 

“Kit, and our nephew,” Thace agreed. “He may be a kit but he needs to be recognized for what he is.”

“And just what is that?” 

The levelness of his brother's voice practically dared Thace. Speak, that voice said, and invite my displeasure. 

“Your nobles disgrace him, and Kethrik is a potential heir of yours. Your reign, may it be long and glorious, will be more than sufficiently long for him to be an heir if you so choose or lack a child of your own blood in time. Your men must recog...” 

“Enough.”

Thace knew better than to continue when his brother spoke. The protections of shared blood only went so far. Even he would push only so far. So he stayed silent as Zarkon selected a wedge of gingerfruit, watching his brother evaluate the thing as if it might have displeased him. 

“Our sister disgraced us and our father when she bedded a human. No son of hers shall ever sit the throne of the Galra. I will never allow it. You would frankly be more suitable and you... lack in the proper sharp edge a Galra should have.”

It was an intended insult and they both knew it. Not that Thace would let it strike. No, he had liked Keith's analysis better. Galra were fluffy and that was that. Except for Zarkon. And Ulaz. Thace mentally shook off the pleasing memory and instead watched his brother consume the fruit, waiting for him to start chewing to answer. 

“I have no such reservation,” Thace announced to his brother. “I will take our nephew as my son. Adopt him as my own heir.”

“No.”

Thace stared at his brother in shock. Of everything he expected, such a blunt answer was not included. Arguments, yes. To be forbidden from his will, of course. Maybe even have his brother be patronizing about allowing it, he could see Zarkon turning the desire to care into an insult. A simple, controlled answer was... almost unworthy of his brother's prodigious anger. 

“There is no reason that Keith should be...”

Isolated, Thace was going to say, but the furious look on his brother's face, the full and open baring of teeth made Thace shrink in his seat. Had he finally gone too far? Perhaps, but for Keith it was definitely worth it. The boy needed someone in his corner. Now if only Thace could find the courage to do so better in the face of his brother's anger. 

“The bastard's name is is Kethrik, for all that he is not worthy of a Galra name, especially not one belonging to such a storied hero and warrior of the goddess. You will refer to him as such or not at all. Do I make myself understood?”

“With great clarity,” Thace answered with his head bowed. “I just thought...”

“Don't,” Zarkon snapped. “Haggar, tell him.”

The druid, with no silver on her robes Thace noted once again, seemed to appear at Zarkon's elbow. As was often true her face was heavily obscured by her hood and Thace wished he could see enough to read her expression. Instead he glared down at his hands, ashamed over how easily cowed he was before his brother. 

“What father would agree to wed his daughter to even a Galra Prince if he knew the kits that resulted would be looked over as heirs because of a bastard. Even worse you would insult them because it wouldn't even be your own get.”

It was a poor excuse, especially when he knew he was no catch as it was, save for the connection to his brother. Besides, unless his brother died unexpectedly, he would never sit the throne and his own heir would be meaningless. The only point was to reinforce who Keith was and how it could protect him. 

“I understand,” Thace allowed quietly. “Forgive my impudence.”

“No,” Zarkon repeated. “I do not think I will. You have put me off my meal. I would have you leave.”

“Of course,” Thace agreed. Perhaps he was as eager to go as Zarkon might be to rid himself of Thace. With a brief gesture he was dismissed, and while Thace didn't run with his metaphorical tail between his legs. 

When he left he had to pass captain Sendak to do so. The soldier looked at him briefly with his one good eye before entering his Emperor's presence. Thace took half a moment to catch his breath in, a place no one would ask him what happened. It was only when he had steeled himself once more than he strode forward, not even waiting for the druid to fall in. Only when he had returned to the safety of his room, though without the pleasure of slamming the door that he spoke. 

“He refused. Said it would make me an undesirable husband. As if any woman would want such a spineless mate anyway.”

Of course that wasn't how arranged marriages worked anyway so he should stop complaining. 

“Any woman would be lucky to have you friend,” Ulaz spoke. The druid's soft voice came along with gentle touches as Ulaz laid his hands on Thace's shoulders. The kindness almost made him feel better. “And showing love for him would make them glad to have you. Now, tell me what the Emperor said.”

“Why?” Thace asked as he pulled back from Ulaz's touch. 

“Because you are, in your frustration, going to use your familiarity with the library to get around your brother. I am certain that in the long and storied history of your family you can find some argument to adopt Keith that he can't avoid.”

There was more hope in the druid's voice than Thace expected, and he almost believed it. 

* * * * * *

“I need a showy entrance,” Thace mumbled under his breath as he strode quickly toward the room where he knew his brother was entertaining dinner guests. Interrupting the Emperor's meal was itself going to be a statement. Though he was going to have to work to ignore the growling of his stomach. Ulaz had insisted that Thace eat during his frantic research in the library. Getting crumbs and gravy on the materials would have been unacceptable. 

What it came down to, though, was that a man with an armload of books and scrolls, and struggling to keep his rarely used coronet on his head meant he could not entirely manage the door that would lead into the presence of his brother and his guests. Guests that included two of the most powerful Galra lords that served the Emperor. Even Zarkon needed the support of such lords, especially given the history of war amongst their people. That one of them strongly disliked Zarkon would do much for Thace's plan to force his brother's hand. 

A plan that came to its beginning with Ulaz reaching Thace's stride with a quick movement. His hands rose up and flashed with violet light, as did the doors. And with the burst of quintessence the doors to the chamber slammed open. Thace resumed his forward motion, ignoring the stupefied guards, that did not know how to act before a prince of the Galra people acting like this, much less overflowing with books and trailing an angry looking druid. Thace wanted to laugh at the idea. Ulaz was likely as in control now as ever. Haggar, though, had no such restraint. The druid was there immediately, blocking his path. 

“You were not invited,” the woman noted, her voice a deadly whisper. 

A deadly whisper Thace countered with a voice, louder than he normally dared use in front of others, especially not with so many important Galra lords. 

“I did not ask to be,” Thace answered, pitching his voice to carry. He could see the men and few women at the table turning their gaze and ears toward him. His brother was impassive at the head of the table. “Nor would I. I have things to do. But this could not wait. For all of this.” 

Thace walked straight toward the table. A minor military officer seemed to be the right target for this, so Thace bustled up beside him and dumped his armload. His hand came up to straighten his coronet. The gesture was as much to remind himself of his status as to remind them. They had to remember for this to work. 

“I come, my lords, and my lord Emperor, to make a personal announcement. Tonight, before the fullness of the moon and the grace her gaze places upon us, I shall formally be adopting my nephew Kethrik as my son and heir.”

“Thace,” Zarkon growled, slowly rising to his feet. This time he would not let his brother knock his plan down. Before these lords he had some degree of power and authority. Especially when the crown on his brow reminded them that Thace was the second most powerful figure in the Empire, even if his brother didn't like him. Here and now he had power. 

“There is precedent,” Thace continued, ignoring the menace in his brother's voice. He was going to pay for this, but he was not going to be stopped. “An adoption in the light of the full moon, presided over by a druid, is legally binding. It is doubly so when announced before witnesses and triple when the witnesses includes the Emperor or lords of the land.”

“I am the boy's guardian,” Zarkon noted, clearly struggling to remain composed. 

“Indeed,” Thace agreed. “Thank you for mentioning that. A child already in the care of a lord is a bit of a puzzler. Thankfully our great-great-granduncle had an answer to that one. Here...” Thace scooped up the relevant scroll and thrust it at the nearest lord, making them unroll it and jabbing a finger at the needed passage. “I marked this just for you, brother. You see his mother, the then queen-mother, bore him a younger sister by the second lord of the land. He was an ill man, our distant relative, and while his mother was to pass the crown to him when he came of an age to sit the throne, he too needed an heir. To that end he adopted his own younger sister, who wasn't of the bloodline, even though her father was her guardian. He deemed it more important to preserve the royal line without conflict than to care too much of his uncle's third daughter by a second wife. This was later repeated in his niece's time for an ancestor of your own General Prorok. That man's new heir had a guardian, a second cousin, who had no use for the boy but disliked his cousin, and wanted to spite him by seeing the main line of the family die out. The Queen ruled that the change was agreeable with the boy, which is was, would elevate his status, and preserve a bloodline, so it was acceptable to do so without the guardian signing off. Thus the Queen allowed the adoption, though it could only be through the eyes of the goddess and druids to serve as her voice. Shall I continue?”

Zarkon's face was beyond sour, like he had eaten an entire mouthful of leburberries in one go. Maybe there was hope here. 

“He is an heir to the throne,” Zarkon spoke between clearly clenched teeth. 

“He is not,” Thace stated blandly. “You yourself underlined that, my lord brother. Kethrik was borne out of wedlock. He is a bastard child. He cannot serve as an heir without formal adoption, which I am proposing. Then again... you could offer to adopt him yourself, brother...”

There was hate in those eyes, and Thace wanted to revel in it. But now was not the time for gloating. He had to keep his eyes on his target, and that target was the boy safely in his arms. 

“I would hear more about this proposal, it is intriguing.”

The voice from Zarkon's right drew all eyes. It was the one person Thace needed to have speak up, and there she was, clearly ready to be in his corner. 

Lady Corta was the current second lord, the senior most noble beyond the Emperor and the Crown Prince. Rumor had it that she had been passed over as the possible third wife to Thace and Zarkon's father when Thace's mother has passed when he was twenty-three. Beyond that she was a proud and independent woman who had formally adopted a child of a loyal vassal when she had not wedded. Her people made up some of the largest part of the army, many military leaders were her direct vassals, and she was loved by her common folk as well. If there was any real threat to the throne's power, it would be her, not Thace. Keeping her pleased was an important part of Zarkon's reign. 

“If the boy means that much to you, and his status as a prince of our people not sufficient, I will not protest,” Zarkon spoke at last. 

Like that Thace had won. Could it really be this simple? No, there would be punishment, he knew that, and he was certain he could face it. 

“But the oath should be public,” Zarkon continued. “You will give it to the Mother of Constellations tonight. And there will be witnesses beyond her.”

“I shall attend the process with him,” Lady Corta announced. “He is a kind young man to take such responsibility upon himself.”

For a moment Thace had a brief flash of fear. Being indebted to the woman might mean a marriage could be arranged for him far sooner than he might like. There was, after all, the woman's adopted daughter and heir to think of. Then again, there was no way his brother would allow her the additional power that would come with joining her force to Thace's. 

“Yes,” Zarkon mumbled. “But, brother, that means you really are fully responsible for the boy. His keeping, keepers, tutelage, it is all upon you. And it shall begin promptly. If you would be a father you shall do so. In full. With no delay. I must wonder, though, what a man who doesn't even inspire enough loyalty to have guards willing to act as his protection for more than a few weeks really likely to be responsible enough for a child and their care?”

Thace took the slings with perfect composure. Insults were not something he was going to care for. Instead he wanted to celebrate the small victory while he was safe in his room. The real punishments would come later and he wasn't going to borrow their trouble. 

“Oh... and you'll have to find someone to transport his things. I cannot spare the servants at this time.”

It was a particularly petty means to strike at him, but Thace could care less. He'd find someone to help him, and he thought maybe the Lady Corta might serve that purpose for him, if she dared another move to slight his brother. But that was to be dealt with tomorrow. Tonight there was more to take care of. 

Thace swept into a deep bow directed at his brother. “I shall leave the records for the Mother of Constellations, then. I have much to do before the moon rises to its zenith. My lords, lady, I wish you a pleasant meal.”

With the bow completed he turned on a foot to stride out. Staying would only invite further confrontation with his brother. Yet when he made it to the door he found himself briefly inspired and he had to say something. 

“But I think you make a good point, my brother. I shall go among the guards tomorrow to select one for Kethrik and a few for myself. I fear I shall have to pay well until I can learn to inspire loyalty as you do so easily. I am quite lucky that both father left me well endowed in both funds and lands to support me. And that our sister, my her soul find rest in the embrace of the goddess, made Kethrik and myself her primary heirs. I expect I shall find no issue in supporting my son. Thank you for your concern, though, brother.”

That seemed the best point to escape. He straightened the crown once more and strode briskly out. He could not help but smile when he heard the door slam behind him, no doubt punctuation from Ulaz on the whole matter. It was only barely audible over the pounding of his heart though. How would his brother retaliate, because he knew the older man would. 

“Ul, we need to...”

The words failed Thace as the world around him began to spin. Thace sensed more than felt or saw the floor rushing up to meet him, but instead of a sudden and hard stop he found himself wrapped up in warm arms. 

“I told you to eat,” Ulaz grumbled, and Thace found himself lifted with surprising ease. “We will feed you before the oath taking. I will send someone to get Keith. All else can wait. The kit can share your bed tonight as well. Everything else can be handled tomorrow. Alright?”

Thace didn't argue, couldn't really find the strength. Instead he closed his eyes and tried not to be embarrassed as Ulaz held him easily in his arms. Or maybe, he thought, he was too pleased with his position, and that was what made him self-conscious. Either way there was much to do, and with his energy so lacking, he was going to have to let his druid do for him as he could.


	7. Chapter 7

“It's too late to be awake.”

The mewling, overly loud and clearly giving away that Keith wasn't nearly as sleepy as he might want people to think, let Thace know that his young nephew had finally arrived. He hadn't known exactly when that was set to occur given Ulaz had few him and put him to sleep—magic was clearly involved in that—before setting about preparations himself. Thace had only been roused twenty minutes before, and for once he had allowed Ulaz to assist him in dressing. Too much of tonight had to do with formal presentation for Thace to get away with his normal styles, and keeping his arms up was far from a simple process with how he felt weak as a kit right now. After dressing Ulaz had left Thace in front of the vanity to fuss with his fur and jewelry, his coronet too, and he had been left in relative silence until now. Relative because he had been left alone while the few servants of his household were busy despite the late hour. Additional rooms left bare and dusty had to be prepared for their new residents and uses after all. 

The delighted noise as the nanny carrying Keith entered the bedroom was perfect though. A welcome distraction. Thace turned on his seat and beckoned the woman closer, pleased to see she looked almost fond of her charge, and definitely protective. When he held out his arms she was content to place the kit within them. Trust, or perhaps relief to be done with him. 

“Will you have further need for me, my lord?”

A weighty question. He watched the woman's claws fuss nervously with the tie of an apron she wore. One that had pockets bulging with toys and even, if his nose was right, strips of dried sweetened meat. She cared, this one. 

“Yes,” he replied honestly, “in the morning. I am sorry but I fear you will have little time to pack. The Emperor has made that clear. Pull aside one of the women dusting in the rooms being prepared. Give her the morning schedule for my nephew. I will see it followed even if we start late. Then gather all that is yours from the old rooms. For tonight, as no beds are ready, you may sleep in the sitting room. The couch is quite lovely, I have used it many a weary night myself. We will talk more tomorrow if it suits you.”

Her smile was full of relief, and well it should be. Finding more employment in short order could not be easy, and she even seemed to like the boy during Thace's few run-ins with her. Even with Ulaz's sister—if his family agreed—she would be much needed. And, he intended, well supported her work. Such that he didn't know her name. 

“Are we having a sleep over?” Keith asked, moving in Thace's hold to snuggle his head against his uncle's neck. “Not dressed for it. Greci dressed me for a party. I don't want a party.”

“We will be having a good deal of them, kit. Thank you, Grecie. We will speak compensation tomorrow as well.”

The woman curtsied at the clear dismissal, leaving Thace to regard his nephew. Now came the hard part: explaining. 

“Keith... I am sorry,” he whispered, pulling the boy closer and tucking Keith's head in to his neck. 

“Did you do something bad? Is Uncle Emperor having a punishment party?” Keith asked, pulling back and reaching to pat Thace's head. “I will tell him to be nice.”

Thace would love to see that, and would never let it happen because of the reaction that would come from it. 

“I let you down Keith. Your mother... I loved her very much, but I was so sad when she went away that I forgot you were sad too. All these years I left you alone and...”

“Not alone. I have Greci. She's real nice. My teacher isn't though.” 

Note to self: evaluate and possibly dismiss the kit's tutor. 

“Keith, let me talk. I left you alone. Ulaz reminded me of that. But I want to fix it so you aren't alone. I want you to live with me, Keith. I want you to be your new father rather than just your uncle. I want you to live here with me and Ulaz, and we'll be a family. But I need you to be okay with it because we have to promise to be family under the Goddess's light, and Haggar will knew if we are lying.”

For a while they boy seemed to contemplate this, his right ear twitching as he thought. Then he nodded. 

“Yes. You and Ulaz will be really good family. I wanna live here. Is that why I'm in my party clothes even though it's bedtime? Can I stay up late? Can I sleep with you? Is there going to be candy? Can I call you Papa?”

The questions flew thick and fast, too fast for Thace to interrupt. And interrupt he needed to. Ulaz wasn't going to be a part of their little family. Keith had to be made to understand that lest he accidentally say the wrong thing to the wrong person. Like Zarkon for instance. But before Thace could find a way to frame an explanation Ulaz swept into the room. Keith must have heard, or smelled him coming, because the boy struggled out of Thace's arms. The kit, suddenly full of far more energy than he had been before, rushed at Ulaz to hug his legs. 

“We're gonna be a good family,” the boy announced. Ulaz reached down to stroke Keith's fur, though mostly he seemed focused on sending Thace a very, very puzzled look. 

“It is time,” Ulaz spoke, and with those words Thace groaned. Standing for long periods was far from what he wanted. Too bad he had already gotten one desire today. A second seemed highly unlikely. 

Slowly Thace struggled to his feet, this time holding a hand out. “It is past my bedtime too, Kethrik, so I can't carry you to the tower. But I would like to hold your hand.”

The boy removed himself from Ulaz's robes, his violet eyes curious as he clearly considered the offer. At last he nodded and moved back to Thace's side to take his uncle's hand. Ulaz nodded his approval at them. 

“The Mother awaits. Follow me, my Princes.”

* * * * * *

Never before had climbing the tower of the goddess seemed so difficult, but tonight was not like many others. The most important rituals were those done privately in the vision of the goddess, and to that end the highest tower in the castle had been dedicated. It was from this lofty height that the kings and queens of old were crowned, even if they did have showier festivities for the nobles and common folk either out in the city itself or in the throne room. To the best of Thace's knowledge his brother had never bothered to do his own rites before the moon. This place, though, was a sacred place when graced with the pale light of the goddess as it was now. And truly it was graced by the fullness of her face tonight, and the lack of clouds in the sky. 

Thace might have found it more lovely if his brother and Haggar did not await him at the end of the luminous quartz path that reflected the goddess's glow. His grip may have tightened a bit on Keith's hand as he started forward. The pace he kept sluggishness as possible for the quickly flagging energy of the boy. Ulaz had carried Keith up to the final landing but Keith had made the walk to the tower himself. They both, Thace realized, would sleep well tonight. With that thought in mind, with the knowledge that the kit would soon be his in truth, Thace found the confidence to look only at the Mother of Constellations, not even seeking out the no-doubt supportive gaze of Lady Corta. 

“Who comes before the Goddess in her grace and Wisdom?” Haggar intoned as Thace finally achieved spitting distance of the Mother. 

“Crown Prince Thace of the line of Mettock, first ruler of the Gal, heir of his royal grace Emperor Zarkon, and soon to be father of Kethrik of the same line,” Thace spoke, using the lines Ulaz had coached him in. Apparently the druids had formulaic ways they structured any official sort of observance of oaths. Good thing he had been briefed. This was too important to flub up. Keith, though...

Thace gently squeezed the kit's hand and the boy looked nervously up at him with his beautifully different eyes. Once he had the boy's attention he nodded, smiling warmly at him. 

“I am Kethrik,” the boy spoke, his voice like a whisper. “Prince of the line of... of...”

“Mettock,” Thace prompted. 

“Mettock,” Keith continued, clearly having been fumbling over the old fashioned name, “first king of all the Galra, son of Jovianna, and soon to be son of Thace, Crown Prince of the royal line.”

No more speech was required of the boy for a while, but he looked up to Thace with a smile. Kits wore their pride so openly and Thace smiled back to him. 

“Why have you come before the goddess?”

“So that she, in her grace and wisdom, might join Kethrik's future to mine, son to father, blood to blood, fate to fate,” Thace explained. That one had been in one of the scrolls. “To give an oath that what he need I would supply. To be his father and keeper. To feed him of my table, clothe him of my closet, and raise him to have all that is mine. To promise before the goddess and assembled that he will be my heir in all things.”

There was a disapproving huff at that comment, no doubt from Zarkon. Thace couldn't have cared less in that moment. He had said it. This was official, the boy was...

“If you would be so bound then the goddess will allow it, but such bindings must show resolve. Your arm, Princes of the Gal.”

Thace was left staring for a moment. The knife the druid brandished now had seemed to come from nowhere, and she was clearly intent on its use. Pain, no doubt, had been his brother's way of trying to get Thace to give up. How little his brother thought of him. The greater pain would be to go on failing his nephew. Thace raised his arm to the druid and a quick flash over his skin with the knife parted it, cutting some fur in the process. It left Thace wincing as blood welled from the wound. But he nodded. 

“A minor sacrifice I am more than willing to give,” Thace noted for all who would listen. 

“And the kit?” 

The question left Thace gaping in horror. Surely she did not mean to cut Keith. Yet there she stood, looking expectantly at the boy. Keith, Thace found, was staring at him and his arm with wide eyes. Fear, Thace knew the look well. Even as he was about to speak, about to protest, Keith lifted his arm to Haggar and squeezed his eyes closed. The mewl of pain that came with the cut she gave him angered Thace, raised every protective instinct he had, and a lot he didn't know he could possess. He wanted nothing more than to lunge at the Mother for her action. Bite and kick and claw for her presumption to hurt Keith. It was him that was making a mess of her plans, not Keith. Never Keith. 

Somehow he kept the growl back as she took grip of Thace's wrist, knife gone in an impressive display of either slight of hand or magic. Her touch was like ice when she grabbed Thace's wrist as well as Keith's. Both of them in her grasp she moved them so that the cut flesh overlapped, sharing the spill of their blood. Thace could feel as much as see Keith squirm next to him, but he himself stayed as still as stone to keep his anger under control. After a moment Haggar released them and turned away, raising bloodied hands toward the moon. 

“You hear their oaths, mother of us all. Bind them together forever, in word and deed, blood to blood.”

Slowly, intended to heighten dramatic tension no doubt, the druid lowered her arms. 

“It is done. The boy is yours. Take him away. And do not spill blood upon the stone.”

This time Thace did snarl, ready to leap at the druid to attack. Instead he was held back by a cool touch that made his skin tingle and his fur bristle. When Thace looked to his arm he found the wound gone and Ulaz's pale fingers at his wrist. Healed by quintessence then. More importantly, Thace looked past his druid and saw his nephew—no, his son—staring at his own unharmed arm in awe. For his sake, Thace realized, he could do nothing to Haggar. Zarkon was very much a believer that the sins of the father could be visited upon the son. With that in mind Thace reached past Ulaz to scoop Keith up into his arm. Somehow he could find the strength for it now. Adrenaline or quintessence he didn't know, but there was no way Keith was going to be out of his hands for a while. 

“Come, son, it is time for you to be in bed. We'll have breakfast to celebrate in the morning.”

Together, far from Haggar and Zarkon and any potential threats to them. 

It was only when they were started back down the stairs that Thace realized he had just made Keith into a tool to be used against him. Somehow he didn't care. The more important thing was that Keith wasn't alone any more. And, in a way, neither was Thace. They had each other, for the rest of their lives. If he wasn't careful that wouldn't be long, so he would have to be thoughtful about how he approached things with his older brother now. 

“I would have bit her.”

The words, unexpected and coming from a woman to boot, had Thace pausing on the way down the stairs. He half turned to seek the voice and found that the Lady Corta was descending with them, something he had failed to notice. Thace was careful before he answered, knowing that the wrong thing could spell a new kind of trouble. 

“She is the Mother of Constellations and the oath called for it,” Thace observed, pitching his voice to a whisper. Already he could feel Keith falling asleep against him. Rousing the boy after the day Keith had been through would be cruel. 

“I still would have bit her for harming my child,” Lady Corta chuckled as she moved down past Thace. “You're a parent now, Thace. Rationality is not always what you are best served by. Parents are meant to protect, guide, teach. Give him your strength as much as your self control, Prince, and he will grow into a man you can be proud of. One I would be glad to see as your heir and perhaps one day to be seated upon the throne of our people.”

There was an implication there, in the pitch of her head even though she didn't look back, in the tone of her voice, in the words. An ally? Was she offering to support him if he made a bid against his brother? That would be interesting, but Thace was in no place to reason through all the possible implications. No, he would have Ulaz discuss it with him another time. His druid had a better mind for the political, that much was certain. And, after everything in the last two days, Thace was more certain than ever that he could trust Ulaz's loyalty and opinions. 

As the noblewoman disappeared down the spiraling stairs Thace looked back over his shoulder at Ulaz and he spared his friend a smile. 

Tomorrow they would begin new work. Now that he was a father Thace had one overriding goal in the world: protect Keith. And the biggest barrier to that was obvious. Thace was going to have to do something about his brother.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry. About a handful of days after the last chapter went up I seriously hurt my shoulder. Like, I've actively been recovering for weeks, on insane amounts of pain killers and lidocaine patches and lots of fun as my job has me at a computer for hours so coming home to type was SO far from what I wanted. But I'm mostly recovered now. Last sixish weeks have sucked. Dammit. Anyway, more things.

Nothing can motivate one to linger in bed more effectively than having a warm body to hold close, something Thace hadn't known before. He heard people moving around his rooms long before he was willing to crack an eye open enough to evaluate time. Once he had found his new son snuggled up to him—wrapped in a baggy shirt that Greci had thought to bring with her things and laid out on Thace's bed for the kit—he hadn't cared for waking. The woman's thoughtfulness made her even more valuable than he had first assumed, given it meant he could keep Keith close. Unfortunately that meant that, hours later, it wasn't just Ulaz doing his usual disappointing throat clearing beyond the limits of his curtains. This time there was a very female sounding hum of disapproval added in. 

“They want us to wake up, kit,” Thace whispered into Keith's hair. Given how the boy squirmed against him it was very clear Keith was awake. 

“Do we gotta?” Keith asked. “Cause Greci will make me do school work.”

“What if I promise no school work today?” Thace offered, a bribe that clearly pleased the child. 

“I guess I can, but... no Uncle Emperor?”

“Deal,” Thace agreed warmly. He had no intention on inflicting the man on his son anytime soon. 

“You both realize we can hear you, don't you?” Greci's voice asked from beyond the curtains. 

“Allow them their fun,” Ulaz told her in his own soft tone. “We have busy days before us and they may not get this indulgence again anytime soon.”

How right the druid was. With a sign Thace untangled himself from the boy and blankets both, no easy feat. When he was finished he reached out and pushed the curtains open, letting cooler morning air into the warm bed. Keith whimpered a light protest enough of one for Thace to need to swallow back an amused chuckle. He left the boy where he lay, moving carefully around him to the open space of the floor. Ulaz was there immediately and completely unasked for, draping a soft robe around Thace, something that would have embarrassed him another morning. Today, though, he was willing to deal with the treatment and he almost welcomed it. His whole body was still beyond exhausted, but so much had to be done. 

“I would prefer to take our meal in here this morning,” Thace noted as he moved aside to allow Greci at her charge. “I can already hear the work going on.”

Beyond the closed door of his private room he could hear movement, even when he didn't have his ears pricked toward the sounds. Part of him wanted to know what was going on. The rest of him was certain that Ulaz and Greci had things in hand already. The woman had proved herself the night before, and he didn't doubt she would continue to do so, and Ulaz had won something beyond simple faith in him. Still, with all that clearly going on, the last thing Thace wanted was to be around the noise and fuss. 

“I expected as much,” Ulaz spoke softly. “I allowed Greci to arrange for your meal. We shall have to consider his dietary needs in the future.”

There was something Thace already knew how to handle, but that didn't mean Ulaz was as prepared as him. So Thace just nodded and moved to his standing closet. “We need a good meal. Fortify ourselves for the day.”

“What are your plans now that you're promised the boy that he doesn't need his lessons today?” Greci asked from across the room, a degree of disappointment in her voice. Clearly he was going to earn her disapproval at times. Maybe he should care, but his current joy over the kit being his now over powered that. For now. 

“Protection,” Thace admitted as he selected clothing suited to the training yards: good enough for a prince, not so casual as to imply he was there to spar. “Keith should have had a personal guard a while ago.”

“Something you lack,” Ulaz observed, and from the sounds behind him Thace figured the man was clearing a low table of little knickknacks. 

“Don't bully my dad,” Keith pouted, and Thace was shocked to find a sudden weight at his arm. 

All he could do was smile down at the kit and the purple eyes looking up at him. They asked him to say something in his own defense, and instead he knelt by Keith to hug his son tightly. 

“He isn't bullying me,” Thace answered softly. “Ulaz protects me. We are going to help you have a friend to protect you too. Like Ulaz does for me.”

“A druid?” Keith asked, his eyes going wide.

“Not yet,” Ulaz cut in as he cleaned and prepared. “You are too young. But later we will find one. I will help. Today your father will find a strong guard to protect you.”

For a moment the boy was silent, and Thace watched as his son considered the news with all the intensity of a child, but one that was more aware of the complexity of the world around him than he should have at his age. Perhaps the palace was worse for children now than it had been when Thace had been young. In time Keith nodded, as if he had any say in the situation, now or in the future. Thace was the one who had to make the choices now, and there was more weight on his shoulders than he'd ever expected to find. 

Thace intended to stand tall under it all. 

* * * * * *

Normally Thace was extremely predictable in the times that he ventured down to the training yard for his daily workouts. It meant that the training master usually must have found a way to make the area relatively clear for the Prince's time. Perhaps his brother had ordered the arrangement, perhaps it was the training master himself that made the recommendations. Either way it meant their early morning trip down with Keith at his side and Ulaz at their back was... awkward. He had not expected so many sets of eyes and ears that could report back to his brother, who could be spies, who could laugh at the offer, and he didn't like what might come of this. 

“Woah,” Keith whispered, the word barely reaching Thace with all the noise of the guards and soldiers around them. It was a sentiment Thace could understand. 

There was easily two score of men and women scattered across the grounds. Some were clearly newer trainees given how clumsy they were. There was a collection of younger Galra making the poor show at the archery butts, though even a quick glance showed one that hit the target more often than not, even if there was no consistency to it. There were multiple sparring circles with Galra, both armored and unarmored, circled and battled in a fury of steel or claws. There were even places where the sands in the rings were colored red with spilled blood, something Thace rarely saw by the time he came down. 

“You have a right to be here for your household,” Ulaz mumbled quietly behind Thace. 

The comment was enough to reassure Thace and drive him forward a step. He had important work to do right now: he had to ensure the safety of his son, his family, by selecting guards. Trying to win some of these men and women to him, and hoping to win at least their silence. Here he had a nearly impossible task. A first guard who would willingly stand for a child. 

The movement must have been caught someone's attention because within moments the senior teacher was rushing away from the archery butts and moving to where the master was. Thace followed the man with his eyes to find the training master watching over Sendak facing multiple opponents. Of course the man wanted to show off his druid enhanced replacement limb. Still, the fight came to a very sudden stop with a sharp gesture from the training master. A stop that had one Galra freezing mid-lunge in a way that didn't seem possible while retaining balance. Sendak, though, clearly trusted that his partners would stop without him needing to protect himself, because the man was turning already to consider the direction of the master's gaze. After a moment Sendak turned back to the master, clearly ready to complain over the interruption, but the master moved easily from the circle and started toward Thace. 

“We're here to talk to the older man,” Thace explained to Keith in a whisper before pulling the boy forward. 

Better to meet the man and just accept that they were going to be a spectacle to the soldiers and guards around them. After putting himself so blatantly against his brother, Thace knew he was going to get more attention. No doubt the servants had spread word of what Thace and his brother had argued about at dinner the night before. And the rush of activity around the rooms of the princes told another tale as well. Chances were every last soldier and guard would have attentive ears turned toward what was about to happen. 

“My Prince,” the training master greeted as he swept into a bow. “I have already compiled a list for your consideration regarding more lasting guards for your household.”

“Really?” Thace asked, unable to hold back his surprise. 

“Your druid suggested it would be a need, I began the list yesterday,” the man answered with a brief bow of his head. “Join me in my office.”

“Of course master Rizavan,” Thace agreed. “If this time is convenient for you.”

In the training yards not even a Prince of the Galra was master to old Rizavan. The man had served two kings and now the emperor, and the greatest visible sign of his age was the paleness of his fur from how much white was mixed spread among what must have once been a very striking plum coat. There were larger patches of that of course, strips of white that spoke of deeply scarred skin under the thick fur of a southerner, but Thace would never ask for tales of them himself. For years the man had trained Thace in spite of his brother, and the respect Thace held for the older Galra was unmatched. Despite that he had no illusions that the man was loyal to him in particular. 

Thankfully with Ulaz around Thace thought a private conversation with the master would not result in an assassination attempt. At least not a successful one. So when the man gestured for Thace to follow and moved away, Thace was content to follow.

“Master.”

A single voice rose over the din of training resuming all around them, and Thace almost tripped in his surprise as Rizavan froze mid-stride at the word. 

“Forgive me. I would ask a word,” the voice continued drawing nearer to Thace. Someone interrupting the training master was beyond unthinkable. Someone doing so while the master was arranging to speak to him privately was an even deeper one. Thace could not help but turn to face the approaching man. 

Beast might have been a better descriptor of the man who approached. The Galra was taller than just about any other he had seen before, save his brother that was. The man, in the obvious markings of his brother's guard, towered over Thace, easily pushing toward nine feet if he was an inch, and wide enough that one could probably sling a human-bred horse over his shoulder and have room to perch a young woman on the other shoulder. But what really got Thace, beyond the scar slicing over his face, was the tail. That might make this the same Galra that had been facing Sendak given how unlikely that tail was. Few were the Galra who still possessed tails, and most of those who did were smaller, slighter Galra from the forested regions far to the east. Those clans rarely married outside of each other and so those Galra with tails rarely changed in size, or even came to the capital. 

“Woah,” Keith said again as the tail weaved back and forth in a slow manner. Surely it said something about the mental state of the large man, much like the ears of many Galra, but it was hardly a language Thace knew how to decipher. “I want him. He's big.”

Princes did not let their ears flatten in embarrassment, though it was a struggle for Thace. There was little sense of social propriety in a child, and it could not be expected but Thace still felt self-conscious over his kit. 

“Out of the mouths of kits,” Ulaz observed dryly and at that the large Galra quirked the smallest of smiles. 

“Perhaps... Antok should join us for this discussion, if only to keep the princeling entertained. Would this be acceptable to all parties? My prince?” Rizavan suggested. 

There was something in the master's eyes that made Thace wonder, but when he looked back toward Ulaz and saw his druid was still quite calm, Thace nodded his allowance. 

“If the training master sees fit to invite you after receiving the request to assist me, I will not disagree,” Thace offered, attempting to find the most diplomatic answer. 

The guard nodded briefly at the decision, his right fist to his breast in the Imperial salute. Yet as Thace watched the familiar gesture he saw none of the heat of passion, or the flash of calculation he was used to from officers like Sendak, Haxus, or Prorok. Nor was there the bored detachment of a normal guard at his doors, sent to watch him for his brother. Instead he found Antok's gaze looked somewhere over his shoulder, watching intently for a reaction. Not from Thace or Rizavan, but... Ulaz? 

Somehow, instead of turning to look at his druid and friend, Thace nodded his detached acknowledgment to the gesture and moved past him toward the small office he knew Rizavan to keep. He was eager to get to the bottom of what was happening, why the air around him felt so... weighty. Something was going to happen in that room. His hope was just that whatever came was going to be safe for Keith. 

Rizavan kept a comfortable space for himself, arranged on the edge of clutter and organization. The lights for the room were the standard sort of quintessence lights dimmed to a level clearly meant to mimic candlelight, right down to the flickering. They worked well with the desk covered with paperwork and against the carefully managed shelves of books. Only two chairs in the room were relatively clear, the one behind the desk that Rizavan moved to sit in as he sorted through papers, the other one which Thace immediately lifted Keith into. The kit was immediately swinging his legs and looking around, clearly not pleased to be away from the massive Galra that stood just inside of the closed door, on the opposite side of it from Ulaz. 

“I thought I was going to play with the giant,” Keith pouted up at Thace. The reaction didn't stop Thace from standing between Keith and the stranger. 

“Master Rizavan, may I ask why this Antok...” Thace started to speak, only to be quieted by a single hand risen to prevent the outburst that was bubbling up in him. 

“I take the securing of the lineage of Kreyath's safety as the most important of my duties,” Rizavan spoke, his voice soft and controlled. It was an interesting statement as it was primarily incorrect. The task of protecting the royal line was with the guard, which Rizavan was not in charge of. Sure he trained people, but there was a captain of the guard that managed most of the protection. 

Add to that the fact that many would see the task of assigning a guard to Thace as either treason or as something to be done to protect Zarkon's heirs. To mention Thace's father was... uncommon these days. 

“And there is no Galra I would sooner trust the safety of my Prince and his son to than Antok,” Rizavan continued, not knowing how his word choice concerned Thace. “Not only has he offered himself as the first of your guard, my Prince, but he volunteered before your druid sent his message. I was trying to think of a way to broach the topic with you. Of course, with the druid at your side, perhaps he might be better in charge of your household's security, or that of your son.”

“Please?” Keith chipped in, squirming in his seat. “He looks big and strong. I could ride on his shoulders. I bet I would be safe up there.”

Thace opened his mouth, prepared to protest, when Ulaz's voice cut into the air. 

“If there is a concern about the honor of his service, as a druid I would be capable of witnessing a binding oath. It would prevent him from causing harm or allowing potential harm into your home, my Prince, whether immediate or distant, physical or more abstract. But I do not believe it would be necessary.”

More than anything he wanted to take Ulaz aside and ask just what that entailed, and take some time to really contemplate whether he was willing to stoop to the levels that Haggar did. As it was things were... proceeding more rapidly and far less privately than he'd wanted. 

“I won't bind anyone to me like that,” Thace spoke, his voice a bit sharper than he had intended. Apparently that part of his mind was already made up. 

“Would it help,” Ulaz spoke softly, stepping away from the door and to Thace's side, “if I said I believe he can be trusted?”

It carried more weight than it should. With a sigh Thace turned his attention back to Rizavan. “I will need time to decide on this Antok...”

“If you accepted me without consideration then you would be more a fool than many of my fellows believe,” Antok spoke, his voice a rumble like thunder from the door. “Better that way. See enemies everywhere and you might have a chance to see the real ones coming.”

Ulaz huffed briefly, a little thing that might have been like a laugh which Thace... honestly wasn't expecting. Why would that amuse his druid? 

“I like him,” Keith threw in, probably trying to be helpful, which he wasn't really. 

“Well, you will want time to make all decisions. So let us prepare a whole list of them,” Rizavan noted, finally selecting a paper from his desk. “I have created a list of those guards, younger hopefuls that were thinking of the guards and military, and other people who might best see to your health, my Prince. We can start at the top and discuss them. This may take a while.”

“For the sake of my family's safety, I can't see how I can afford to be anything but methodical,” Thace sighed. With a gesture Keith jumped from the seat and Thace took it instead, pulling his son back into his lap. The morning, he supposed, was going to be impossibly long.


	9. Chapter 9

There was one positive to this whole situation. Apparently Antok was good with kids. Or perhaps it was better to say that Keith was enamoured with his new place riding atop one of Antok’s shoulders, held in place by one of Antok’s massive hands and by Keith’s hands being wrapped in Antok’s fur. It was a good place for the boy, Thace thought as he kept an eye on the boy’s guard as he guided his little entourage through the halls of the castle. They had an appointment back in his suites with Greci to discuss furnishing Keith’s space. Thace was certain he was also going to get told that he had to hire someone to manage his household as well, but that was a headache he wasn’t going to allow her to inflict right this moment. The papers that Rizavan had given him would be more than enough to focus on. 

At least, he mused, he would have Ulaz to help him pick. Perhaps the druid would have some secret for how to figure out who could really be trusted that master Rizavan had lacked. In fact, maybe he should talk to Ulaz about how to be certain of Antok’s loyalty. Of course, just thinking about Ulaz related to Antok brought Thace’s thoughts back to the looks that had been shared between druid and guard, which was a mystery of itself that needed confronting, even if the druid might not allow him to solve it. There was importance in the look that had been shared between the two, in the distance they placed between themselves now, but Thace knew he wouldn’t be able to find it out with both of them together and silence hanging heavily around them all. 

“Prince Thace, I would speak with you!”

Or silence that would have hung heavily between them were it not for the footsteps that had been following them, and the new shout that cut through the air. It was from a voice he well knew, used to hearing it in the mornings in the presence of his brother. Why was it that the military types assumed they had a right upon his time, upon his attention? Thace could easily walk away, return to his rooms without even deigning to publically recognize Sendak, ignore him for his presumptuousness. No mere captain had a right to demand anything of a royal, not even of little Keith. Still, it wasn’t like people in this place respected his status these days. How could they consider it when the man he was heir to was so dismissive of him. And so furious. 

So Thace came to a stop, turning to look upon the Galra soldier. There was a look of anger in Sendak’s gaze as the man strode quickly up to him, one Thace wanted to echo himself when the man didn’t bother to bow before him. 

“This man you have with you is to be a member of my unit when I return to the field. You cannot just take him to serve as a kit-minder,” Sendak declared angrily, as if he had say in the matter. 

Before Thace could open his mouth to counter the point that he could and would do as he liked, he was beat to the punch by a low snarl building up in Antok’s chest. It wasn’t considered polite to do such thing in modern society, to give in to some of the more… base instincts when talking would suffice, but Thace almost laughed at the noise. The pitch to it, the way it was rising at the end, was a promise of danger to whoever dared come near his young. Most Galra growls, snarls and sneers had those sorts of nuances to them, and to hear the new guard already using such a protective one when he and Keith were insulted was… promising. 

More promising than that, in Thace’s opinion, was the fact that as he took half a step forward, Sendak took two back. Plus he seemed to remember himself and not only offered a brief--if insultingly so--bow, but also the military salute of a fist to his breast. Mayhaps Antok was going to be a better fit than Thace had expected. This was something he would have to think on later. For the time being he had to deal with Sendak. 

“I don’t think he appreciated the implication that serving as the personal guard to a prince is below him,” Thace answered, keeping his voice as light and dismissive as possible. It took talent, but it was expected of all nobles. 

“There is great honor in serving as a soldier in our war against the humans,” Sendak countered. And again remembered himself as the rumbling from Antok continued, a wordless admonition of respect even as it was a threat. “My lord, he deserves his chance at winning honor and glory on the battlefield. In no other way can we understand the glory of the empire, or the value of the pledge we give the Emperor.”

“Service has many forms, honor even more,” Antok countered, his voice low and firm even though his tail whipped back and forth in what was very clearly agitation. 

“Such is the belief of the druids,” Ulaz agreed, lending his voice to the conversation. Thace wasn’t sure how he felt about the other two speaking for him, but he didn’t mind the added support. “Service to one can be as noble as service to many. And service to the creation and protection of life is greater than that which might destroy.”

“And his service was offered to my son by his own choosing”, Thace finished for them. “By his own words he pledged his service, his honor, and his blade to the kit, and no words you say can break the vow of a royal guard. As ever it supersedes the right of conscription of the army. Besides, would you want a man who so clearly disliked you at your back? Or wait, are you one of those brave leaders who follows Prorok’s example and guides from the rear?”

It was an insult, no doubt in that. Galra were supposed to be fearless, and their warriors led by strong men and women who would lead any charge. Prorok made excuses. Said he was a strategist instead of a fighter himself. There were those, Rizavan had said in their meeting, who did not approve of this way of things, who did not want to serve such a man in a war that had been going on for the whole of their lives with no end in sight despite assurances that humans were ‘inferior.’ A number of those were ones Rizavan had suggested to fill out the lowest ranks of service to Thace. Seeing the way Sendak bristled at the implication that he would be like Prorok seemed to reinforce the old Galra’s suggestion. Thace would still have to find his own way to win his hearts, but it turned out men like Prorok would at least win Thace their strong arms. 

“Now,” Thace continued, filling his voice with dismissal and disdain for the man before him, “you will leave my presence. My son and I have things we must do today and little time to do them in due to the generosity of my brother. I don’t care to waste further time squabbling with you. I wish you good day, Captain Sendak.”

With that Thace turned around and resumed the walk toward his rooms, leaving a no doubt upset soldier behind. Yet having both Ulaz and Antok there, standing at his side, meant that he didn’t have to worry about the soldier trying to put a blade in his back. Well, maybe he should be concerned about Antok trying, but he didn’t think he would have to worry about the man succeeding. Ulaz would never allow it and Antok had a vested interest in keeping Thace alive for Keith’s sake. He had indeed sworn serious oaths to the boy, during which Keith had watched on with a strange sort of bemusement. Partially Thace thought the kit had been watching the slow sweep of Antok’s tail. The boy was as intrigued by that as by just how large Antok was. When Antok had offered to let Keith ride on his shoulder the boy had positively squealed in delight. 

Truth be told, at that age Thace had been the same way about his brother, not that Zarkon had ever indulged him as the guard did. 

“Well handled.”

It was something Thace had been half expecting to hear, just not from Antok. As they walked away the soldier had whispered them, clear approval in his voice. 

Perhaps the soldier wasn’t going to be so bad of a fit after all. 

******

“How do you know him?” 

It wasn’t often that he managed to catch the druid off guard, but Thace couldn’t help but note the way the druid standing at his side flinched. Then again he had been looking for it. The whole timing of the question was meant to put the man off balance. He’d waited until after their lunch shared with his growing household, until Greci and Antok were having a quiet debate over Keith as the boy drew pictures of himself and his new family, until the debates had briefly quieted and even Ulaz, ever vigilant at his side, had relaxed his posture. 

“Know who, my prince?” Ulaz asked, his voice quiet. When Thace tilted his head up to look at the druid who continued to insist on standing while Thace lounged on a couch, he could see a strange expression there. Reservation and annoyance. The druid glanced down at Thace, and the look told him a lot. It said that this wasn’t the time or the place for the conversation that Thace wished to have. 

That didn’t mean he was letting Ulaz get out of what he needed to know, what he wanted to hear. Thace allowed himself a languid stretch before he rose from the couch. Of course the motion drew the attention of Greci and Antok, almost as if they were a single Galra, but Thace waved their attention away. 

“Do not let me interrupt your discussions on how to arrange his room,” Thace assured them. “I trust that between the two of you that something secure and fitting can be managed. I wouldn’t know what to add myself. I, in the meantime, wish a moment to myself. I imagine they shall be more fleeting in the future.”

Greci’s chuckle made the comment which was meant to be thrown away seem more like unexpected foresight. Oh well, he didn’t think he would regret that too much, not with the fact that no one was leaping to gain private time with him, and that he wasn’t looking forward to the day his brother forced him into a marriage. Perhaps he would find himself wrong in the future, but Thace had been mostly alone since his sister had passed and he was glad for the noise and life around him now. Privacy, though, was going to be a necessary part of his future planning with Ulaz. He would have to find a way to handle that, and his answer was likely either his bedroom or his bath if he could find a way to convince the human there not to speak to others. For now, though, his only hope was the balcony. 

Predictably Ulaz followed him outside, and while Thace found himself teasing a corner of his long tunic into place--wishing he had chosen one of the ones with small weights sewn into the edges to keep the wind from blowing it around--he heard the druid mumbling under his breath. There was a crackle of energy in the air that made Thace’s fur bristle just a bit and he swore he could smell the slightest little burn in the air. The druid was up to some sort of magic and Thace longed to know what it was about. Perhaps some spell meant to protect them, but how? Something to keep their voices unheard by others? That would be a useful trick. 

“Silence,” Ulaz spoke at last as Thace sat himself in the carved wooden chair outside of the door. When he looked he saw the doors had been shut behind them, and druidic symbols burned along the edges of the frame in that odd violet light of druid magic. “None shall hear us that are not upon this balcony himself. I would prefer not to use the magic often, but you need to know it is an option for when we speak.”

“That will be useful given I am just short of choosing to rebel against my brother,” Thace sighed, shaking his head. He gestured to the stool beside his seat and surprisingly the druid slighted upon the spot. Comfort for Ulaz? Unheard of. This must be more serious than Thace had assumed. 

“Yes, and even in a situation like this I would prefer you not be so straightforward in what you say,” Ulaz sighed, a heavy sort of noise that made it seem like the weight of the world might be upon his shoulders. “And before you ask the question, know that the way in which I am bound I cannot provide the answers I would wish, or I would need. Yes, Antok and I once met. Yes, I believe you can trust him with conversations like this, even if I would not put such surety upon Greci or Keith or even my own sister if she chooses to accept your offer. Know that Antok is a man of more honor and loyalty than one might ever hope to find. He will not betray your cause, and given a chance, I believe he would assist in it. But you are better served by trusting in him to protect your son.”

A speech from Ulaz? Who would have thought such a thing possible. It was enough to make him wonder, though. Just what secret was it that Antok held? More than that, he found himself wanting to know what it was that kept Ulaz silent about this. Could it perhaps have to do with the memory of masked men embracing Ulaz as a brother? The memory was faint in Thace’s mind, an echo of an echo of a dream, and while he could still feel the sensation of welcome and purpose, he could barely even make out the pattern on the mask. For some reason, though, he wanted to associate the bulky guard with that moment. With that… purpose? 

“Of course,” Thace allowed with a sigh. Somehow he was going to have to find a way through the barriers placed upon Ulaz, but for the life of him he felt no closer to achieving that than anything else. “Will… you sit with me while I think?”

“Aren’t I doing that already, Thace?”

The name was as much a comfort now as it had been the first time he had heard it from the druid. A connection to something he couldn’t reach back to, and perhaps hope for the future that seemed so dangerous as well. It was comfortable, to be here like this, sitting next to his friend. And yet he wanted more. How greedy was he to want to reach out and lay his hand over Ulaz’s and seek comfort in the touch? Was it not wrong to put such an expectation on a man who had already admitted to diminished emotional responses? Perhaps, but Ulaz was also the first man to be so honest with him in so very, very long. How could his foolish heart not see that as a greater and more meaningful kindness than it was? 

Yet hadn’t he felt something else there in those moments they were one? 

Wishful thinking he told himself. 

“We’re going to need to talk seriously about the proposed guards chosen by Rizavan,” Thace said at length as he cast his eyes out over the balcony and toward the city he had not seen since he was a child. “How much can…?”

“Trust his decisions,” Ulaz said firmly. Apparently the man knew more than he’d say even there. 

To call that maddening was beyond simplifying. Thace rose quickly from his seat and strode to the edge of the balcony. “I don’t suppose you can explain that either?”

“No,” Ulaz admitted, and there almost seemed to be pain in his voice.

“You’re as much a mystery to me as the city,” Thace sighed as he leaned forward against railing. “Once I knew you both, and now I find myself lost before I even venture forth.”

Silence met the observation, but Thace wasn’t expecting anything more than that. Some parts of Ulaz were predictable. This, clearly, was one of them. He would let Thace talk at length and only guide quietly from the side. Perhaps Ulaz had been guiding him in such a way since they had been reunited. Perhaps Thace had just proved resistant to suggestion at first. And now he was well and truly caught up in whatever web his friend was weaving. Given the fact that he had been granted Keith because of that plotting, though… 

“Would you to know it better?”

The question was unexpected enough to make Thace jump. He whirled to look at the druid and was shocked to find the smallest hint of a smile on his lips.

“I shall take that as a yes,” Ulaz stated, and Thace thought that if the man could purr in pleasure, he would. “It will take me a bit of time to make arrangements for it, but in two days time you and I shall walk the streets of the city and you shall learn it again, learn your people.”

“My brother would kill me when he found out,” Thace hissed between clenched teeth. 

“Your brother will never even know you went, my friend,” Ulaz answered as he rose. “Trust me, I know what I am doing. Two days. Make sure you draw some spending money. You’ve a good excuse for it given the changes taking place here. And you are buying lunch for me.”


End file.
